African economies began tapping into overseas markets for funding in the early 2000s, after debt burdens had been alleviated by the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. However, surging interest rates on dollar- and euro-denominated loans in recent years have prompted countries to turn to domestic markets for their borrowing needs. Amadou Sy heads the IMF Regional Studies division. In this podcast, he says there are benefits to issuing debt in local markets and in local currency.

Transcript: https://traffic.libsyn.com/imfpodcast/Amadou_Sy-transcript-IMF_Podcast.pdf

Read the article at IMF.org/FandD

Unprecedented debt levels are pressing governments to make tough choices. While aging populations demand more public spending, resources are stretched thin, and the days of cheap borrowing that allowed the debt burden to be kicked down the road are behind us. Rodrigo Valdés and Era Dabla-Norris head the IMF Fiscal Affairs department and write about high debt and hard choices in the March edition of Finance & Development magazine. In this podcast, they say the erosion of public trust is a factor in reconciling competing fiscal priorities.

Transcript: https://traffic.libsyn.com/imfpodcast/Valdes-Dabla-Norris-AUDIO-transcript-IMF_Podcast.pdf 

Read the article at IMF.org/fadd