Unfinished business in the international dialogue on debt

From November 2001 to April 2003, the International
Monetary Fund grappled with a radical proposal, the
Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism, for handling the
external debt of insolvent governments of developing and
transition economies. That proposal was rejected, but new
"collective action clauses" that address some of the
difficulties in restructuring bond debt are being introduced.
In addition, IMF is developing a pragmatic and eclectic
approach to assessing debt sustainability that can be useful
to governments and creditors. However, many of the
problems in restructuring sovereign debt remain and this
paper suggests both specific reforms and modalities for
considering them.