Statistics On External Debt Bank for International Settlement (BIS) - International Monetary Fund (IMF) - Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) - World Bank August 2000

Statistics in pdf format

These statistics are a product of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Finance Statistics (1). They bring together data that are currently compiled and published separately by the contributing international agencies on components of countries’ external debt and international reserve assets. This should facilitate timely and frequent access by a broad range of users to a single data set.

These data are mostly from creditor and market sources, but also include information provided by the debtor countries themselves. Not all the series are yet available on a quarterly basis and there are some gaps in coverage. The most important gaps relate to
(i) non-officially guaranteed suppliers credit not channeled through banks (e.g., direct investment debt); 
(ii) private placements of debt securities; 
(iii) domestically issued debt held by nonresidents; and 
(iv) deposits of nonresidents in domestic institutions.

There is also some overlapping coverage in the area of debt maturing within a year. As a result, individual data do not necessarily add up to a comprehensive definition of total external debt. Summary tables showing total external debt from creditor and debtor sources are shown in the three following Excel 5 workbooks: World Bank stock data, World Bank flow data, and OECD debt data.

At present, the statistics cover – and use the nomenclature of – all developing countries and countries in transition as defined by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee in their list of aid recipients (i.e. all non-OECD countries and territories plus the Czech Republic, Hungary, Korea, Mexico, Poland and Turkey). The sources, definitions and coverage of individual series are explained in detail in the accompanying methodological notes.

The organisations collaborating on these statistics are working to improve their collection systems and to gradually improve their content (in terms of quality, coverage, frequency and timeliness), as part of more general efforts towards greater transparency. 

The data series in each row of the table are described briefly in the matrix below. The columns of the table cover:

a. Stocks - the amounts outstanding at the end of each period; and

b. Flows - disbursements net of repayments during the period. Flows are available for debt securities, Brady bonds, multilateral claims and bilateral loans (lines B, C, E and F). For the banking and trade credit figures (lines A, D, J, L and M), the change in stocks, adjusted for changes in exchange rates to the US dollar during the period, is given. For other series flow data are not available.

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Note 1: The Inter-Agency Task Force on Finance Statistics is one of the interagency task forces endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission and the Administrative Committee on Coordination - Sub-Committee on Statistical Activities and was set up in 1992. It was reconvened in 1998 to co-ordinate work among the participating agencies to improve the quality, transparency, timeliness and availability of data on external debt and international reserve assets. The Task Force is chaired by the IMF and includes representatives from the four organisations that have collaborated to produce this data - the Bank for International Settlements, the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the World Bank - as well as from the European Central Bank, European Statistical Office and the United Nations.

List of aid recipients

The DAC List of Aid Recipients Used for 1997, 1998 and 1999 flows

Notes:

* Central and Eastern European countries and New Independent States of the former Soviet Union (CEECs/NIS)

§ Territory

1. These countries and territories transfered to Part II on 1 January 2000.