IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2020-034.html

Barbados’ 2018–19 Sovereign Debt Restructuring–A Sea Change?

Author

Listed:
  • Anthony Myrvin
  • Gregorio Impavido
  • Mr. Bert van Selm

Abstract

This paper examines the causes, processes, and outcomes of Barbados’ 2018–19 sovereign debt restructuring—its first ever. The restructuring was comprehensive, featuring several rarely used approaches, including the restructuring of treasury bills, and the use of a retrofitted collective action mechanism. The debt restructuring has helped to set Barbados’ public debt on a clear downward trajectory. A sustained reform effort, maintaining high primary surpluses and ambitious structural reforms, will be needed to gradually reduce public debt from about 160 percent of GDP before the restructuring to the country’s 60 percent debt-to-GDP target.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony Myrvin & Gregorio Impavido & Mr. Bert van Selm, 2020. "Barbados’ 2018–19 Sovereign Debt Restructuring–A Sea Change?," IMF Working Papers 2020/034, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2020/034
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=49044
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeromin Zettelmeyer & Christoph Trebesch & Mitu Gulati, 2013. "The Greek debt restructuring: an autopsy [Greek bond buyback boondoggle]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 28(75), pages 513-563.
    2. Tamon Asonuma & Christoph Trebesch, 2016. "Sovereign Debt Restructurings: Preemptive or Post-Default," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 175-214.
    3. Christoph Trebesch & Mr. Michael G. Papaioannou & Mr. Udaibir S Das, 2012. "Sovereign Debt Restructurings 1950-2010: Literature Survey, Data, and Stylized Facts," IMF Working Papers 2012/203, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gatien Bon & Gong Cheng, 2021. "Understanding China's role in recent debt relief operations: A case study analysis," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 166, pages 23-41.
    2. Clemens M. Graf von Luckner & Josefin Meyer & Carmen M. Reinhart & Christoph Trebesch, 2025. "Sovereign Haircuts: 200 Years of Creditor Losses," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 73(1), pages 150-195, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Josefin Meyer & Carmen M Reinhart & Christoph Trebesch, 2022. "Sovereign Bonds Since Waterloo," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 137(3), pages 1615-1680.
    2. Mark Wright, 2018. "The Seniority Structure of Sovereign Debt," 2018 Meeting Papers 928, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    3. Frederik Eidam & Friedrich Heinemann, 2019. "Towards more feasible sovereign debt restructurings in the euro area," EconPol Policy Reports 12, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    4. Gatien Bon & Gong Cheng, 2021. "Understanding China's role in recent debt relief operations: A case study analysis," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 166, pages 23-41.
    5. Silvia Marchesi & Tania Masi, 2019. "Sovereign risk after sovereign restructuring. Private and official default," Working Papers 423, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2019.
    6. Gong Cheng & Javier Diaz-Cassou & Aitor Erce, 2019. "The macroeconomic effects of official debt restructuring: evidence from the Paris Club," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 71(2), pages 344-363.
    7. Asonuma, Tamon & Niepelt, Dirk & Ranciere, Romain, 2023. "Sovereign bond prices, haircuts and maturity," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    8. Luc Jacolin & Quentin Dufresne & Marin Ferry, 2025. "From Debt Reset to Growth Onset? Sovereign Debt Restructuring and Firm Performance in Developing Countries," Working papers 991, Banque de France.
    9. Jean-Pierre Allegret, 2015. "6. Quelles sont les causes et les conséquences d’un défaut sur la dette publique ?," Regards croisés sur l'économie, La Découverte, vol. 0(2), pages 101-116.
    10. Julian Schumacher & Christoph Trebesch & Henrik Enderlein, 2015. "What Explains Sovereign Debt Litigation?," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(3).
    11. Sebastian Horn & Carmen M. Reinhart & Christoph Trebesch, 2022. "Hidden Defaults," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 112, pages 531-535, May.
    12. Mr. Tamon Asonuma & Mr. Marcos Chamon & Akira Sasahara, 2016. "Trade Costs of Sovereign Debt Restructurings: Does a Market-Friendly Approach Improve the Outcome?," IMF Working Papers 2016/222, International Monetary Fund.
    13. Clemens Fuest & Friedrich Heinemann & Christoph Schröder, 2016. "A Viable Insolvency Procedure for Sovereigns in the Euro Area," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 301-317, March.
    14. Tamon Asonuma & Michael G. Papaioannou & Eriko Togo & Bert van Selm, 2020. "Belize’s 2016–17 Sovereign Debt Restructuring – Third Time Lucky?," Journal of Banking and Financial Economics, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 2(14), pages 47-67, December.
    15. Sunder-Plassmann, Laura, 2020. "Infation, default and sovereign debt: The role of denomination and ownership," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    16. Consiglio Andrea & Zenios Stavros A., 2015. "Risk Management Optimization for Sovereign Debt Restructuring," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 181-213, December.
    17. Silvia Marchesi, 2016. "Life after default? Private vs. official sovereign debt restructurings," Development Working Papers 398, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano, revised 26 Aug 2016.
    18. Christophe Destais & Frederik Eidam & Friedrich Heinemann, 2019. "The design of a sovereign debt restructuring mechanism for the euro area: Choices and trade-offs," EconPol Policy Reports 11, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    19. Salomao, Juliana, 2017. "Sovereign debt renegotiation and credit default swaps," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 50-63.
    20. Daniel, Betty C. & Nam, Jinwook, 2022. "The Greek debt crisis: Excusable vs. strategic default," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2020/034. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.