Sovereign Debt: Past, Present, and Future Risks. Session #1: Overview

The current crisis will leave large swathes of the world economy with large fiscal imbalances and mounting sovereign debt, raising the risk of a new global wave of debt overhangs and defaults and a 'lost decade' of slow growth and economic instability. What are the key drivers of public debt sustainability? How do organizations such as the IMF assess a country's debt sustainability risks and what are the main policy recommendations for addressing them? What have we learnt from recent episodes of debt crises? And, importantly, how can governments and international financial institutions mitigate the long-term economic damage of the pandemic?