Centre for Finance and Development

This Tuesday public lecture by Governor Signe Krogstrup at Geneva Graduate Institute

40 years of the Least Developed Countries Report

28 October 2024, 18:30 - 19:45 Geneva Graduate Institute Centre for Finance and Development
Register here
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40 years of the Least Developed Countries Report | IHEID Join us to celebrate the 40 years of UN Trade and Development's flagship Report on Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

Today 6:30 PM at the Geneva Graduate Institute We will be discussing Debt Sustainability Africa

With
Jason Braganza (Afrodad)
Penelope Hawkisn (UNCTAD)
Yuefen Li (South Centre)
I'll be moderating.

Join if you are interested

More info here:

Debt Sustainability in Africa | IHEID Join us for this panel discussion, as part of the CFD - UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Series on Financing for Development

Public Investment quality matters. Here are more details (and links) about a new paper with Amat Adarov titled "Public Investment Quality and its Implications for Sovereign Risk and Debt Sustainability". We introduce a novel index to measure public investment quality.

The paper highlights that not all public investments are equally productive. High-quality investments can improve fiscal fundamentals and reduce sovereign risk, while low-quality investments may lead to fiscal deterioration.

The focus is on emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) with significant infrastructure gaps and limited fiscal space. The study underscores the importance of efficient implementation of public investments for economic growth.

We introduce a novel index, the Public Investment Quality (PIQ) index, to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of public investments. This index uses World Bank project performance data from 120 countries between 2000-2021.
We find that high public investment is associated with lower sovereign risk and better fiscal sustainability when PIQ is high. In contrast, high public investments can lead to higher sovereign risk and increased debt levels when PIQ is low. The implications are particularly critical for low-income countries (LICs) facing high sovereign spreads, constrained fiscal capacity, and intermittent access to international capital markets. Effective public investment is crucial for fostering growth in EMDEs. The paper shows that public investment quality has non-trivial consequences for the cost of capital and macroeconomic stability. Effective public investment is crucial for fostering growth in EMDEs.

Public Investment Quality and its Implications for Sovereign This paper introduces a novel index to measure public investment quality, utilizing the World Bank’s investment project performance data from 120 countries over the period 2000-2021. After detailing