OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook 2012 Contents Executive summary Chapter 1. Sovereign borrowing overview OECD Sovereign Borrowing Chapter 2. Outlook for sovereign risk Chapter 3. Impact of fi nancial contagion on borrowing operations within the euro area Outlook 2012 Chapter 4. Changes in issuance procedures and techniques Annex A. Principles and trade-offs when making issuance choices in the United Kingdom Annex B. A suggested new approach to the measurement and reporting of gross short-term borrowing operations by governments Annex C. Methods and sources O E C D S o v e r e ig n B o r r o w in g O u t Please cite this publication as: lo o OECD (2012), OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook 2012, OECD Publishing. k 2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264169135-en 0 1 This work is published on the OECD iLibrary, which gathers all OECD books, periodicals and statistical databases. 2 Visit www.oecd-ilibrary.org, and do not hesitate to contact us for more information. ISBN 978-92-64-16912-8 -:HSTCQE=V[^VW]: 20 2012 04 1 P OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook 2012 This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Organisation or of the governments of its member countries. This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. Please cite this publication as: OECD (2012), OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook 2012, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264169135-en ISBN 978-92-64-16912-8 (print)(cid:3) ISBN 978-92-64-16913-5 (PDF)(cid:3) (cid:3) (cid:3) The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law. Photo credits: Cover © Inmagine/Designpics Corrigenda to OECD publications may be found on line at: www.oecd.org/publishing/corrigenda. © OECD 2012 You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and teaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgement of OECD as source and copyright owner is given. All requests for public or commercial use and translation rights should be submitted to [email protected]. Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at [email protected] or the Centre français d’exploitation du droit de copie (CFC) [email protected]. FOREWORD Foreword Each year, the OECD circulates a survey on the borrowing needs of member countries. The responses are incorporated in the OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook to provide regular updates of trends and developments associated with sovereign borrowing requirements and debt levels from the perspective of public debt managers. The Outlook makes a policy distinction between funding strategy and borrowing requirements. The central government marketable gross borrowing needs, or requirements, are calculated on the basis of budget deficits and redemptions. The funding strategy entails decisions on how borrowing needs are going to be financed using different instruments (e.g. long- term, short-term, nominal, indexed, etc.) and distribution channels. Accordingly, the OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook provides data and information on borrowing needs and funding policies for the OECD area and country groupings, including • Gross borrowing requirements • Net borrowing requirements • Central government marketable debt • Funding strategies and instruments • Distribution channels OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook 2012 is published this year for the first time as a stand-alone publication (with a summary of Chapter 1 in OECD Journal: Financial Market Trends Volume 2011/2). Previous articles on sovereign borrowing were published in OECD Journal: Financial Market Trends Volumes 2009/1, 2009/2 and 2010/2. See for details www.oecd.org/daf/publicdebtmanagement. The Outlook is part of the activities of the OECD Working Party on Public Debt Management, incorporated in the programme of work of the Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs’ Bond Market and Public Debt Management Unit. 3 OECD SOVEREIGN BORROWING OUTLOOK 2012 © OECD 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Acknowledgements OECD Borrowing Outlook 2012 was prepared by a drafting group from the Bond Market and Public Debt Management Unit in OECD’s Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs and comprised Hans J. Blommestein (Team Leader), Ahmet Keskinler (Public Debt Analyst) and Perla Ibarlucea Flores (Research Assistant). Comments and suggestions can be sent to Dr Hans J. Blommestein, Head of Bond Market and Public Debt Management Unit, OECD, Paris, France, [email protected] 4 OECD SOVEREIGN BORROWING OUTLOOK 2012 © OECD 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents Preface by Angel Gurría, Secretary-General, OECD ...................................................................................... 7 Acronyms ..................................................................................................................................................... 9 Executive Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 1. Sovereign borrowing overview ..................................................................................................... 13 1.1. A highly uncertain issuance environment: concerns about the recovery and growing sovereign risk .. 14 1.2. Evolution of budget deficits, sovereign borrowing and debt ................................................................. 16 1.3. Summary overview of the borrowing outlook for OECD country groupings ....................................... 18 1.4. The challenge of raising large volumes of funds with acceptable roll-over risk during periods with changes in perceptions of sovereign risk ....................................................................................... 20 1.5. Funding strategy during periods of fiscal dominance and fiscal consolidation ..................................... 23 1.6. Central government debt at a glance ...................................................................................................... 25 Notes ............................................................................................................................................................... 26 References ....................................................................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 2. Outlook for sovereign risk ............................................................................................................ 29 2.1. Concerns about sovereign risk outlook is creating major challenges for government borrowing operations ................................................................................................... 30 2.2. Widening of euro area spreads in the summer of 2011.......................................................................... 31 2.3. Market spotlight on Italy ....................................................................................................................... 35 2.4. Animal spirits pushing up borrowing rates? .......................................................................................... 36 2.5. Role of credit rating agencies ................................................................................................................ 37 2.6. Volatile markets are generating selling pressures and higher borrowing costs ..................................... 38 2.7. Definition and measurement of sovereign risk ...................................................................................... 42 2.8. Mispricing of sovereign risk? ................................................................................................................ 43 Notes ............................................................................................................................................................... 45 References ....................................................................................................................................................... 47 Chapter 3. Impact of financial contagion on borrowing operations within the euro area ........................ 49 3.1. Potential for contagion of the euro area crisis ....................................................................................... 50 3.2. Direct channels of contagion ................................................................................................................. 51 3.3. Indirect channels of contagion and impact on borrowing operations .................................................... 51 3.4. Vulnerability of a monetary union to liquidity crises ............................................................................ 52 Notes................................................................................................................................................................ 52 References ....................................................................................................................................................... 53 Chapter 4. Changes in issuance procedures and techniques ......................................................................... 55 4.1. The need to adjust issuance procedures and techniques ........................................................................ 56 4.2. OECD best practices as global standards? ............................................................................................. 56 4.3. Results from a recent survey on OECD issuance procedures and policies ............................................ 57 4.4. Issuance conditions amid a volatile and uncertain environment ............................................................ 60 5 OECD SOVEREIGN BORROWING OUTLOOK 2012 © OECD 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS 4.5. Responses to tougher issuance condition ............................................................................................... 60 Notes ............................................................................................................................................................... 64 References ....................................................................................................................................................... 64 Annex A. Principles and trade-offs when making issuance choices in the United Kingdom .................... 65 Annex B. A suggested new approach to the measurement and reporting of gross short-term borrowing operations by governments ....................................................... 73 Annex C. Methods and sources ...................................................................................................................... 83 Glossary ............................................................................................................................................................. 87 Boxes 2.1. European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) ............................................................................................ 34 2.2. Sovereign ratings ........................................................................................................................................ 39 A.1. Cost effectiveness considerations in the 2011-12 financing remit ............................................................. 67 A.2. Debt management considerations during the period of fiscal consolidation .............................................. 68 Figures 1.1. Fiscal and borrowing outlook in OECD countries for the period 2007-2012 ............................................. 15 1.2. Central government gross borrowing, interest payments and long-term interest rates ............................... 17 1.3. General government financial balance to GDP ratios in OECD countries ................................................. 18 1.4. Central government marketable gross borrowing as a percentage of GDP in OECD countries ................. 19 1.5. Medium-and long term redemptions of central government debt as a percentage of GDP in OECD area and sub-groupings .................................................................................................. 21 1.6. Percentage of debt maturing in next 12, 24 and 36 months ........................................................................ 21 1.7. Average term to maturity ........................................................................................................................... 22 1.8. Maturity structure of gross-borrowing needs for OECD area .................................................................... 24 1.9. Central government marketable debt as percentage of GDP in OECD countries....................................... 25 1.10. Maturity structure of central government marketable debt for OECD area ............................................... 26 2.1. OECD General government gross debt and deficits, 2011 ......................................................................... 30 2.2. Ten-year benchmark bond spreads over Euro swap ................................................................................... 31 2.3. Ten-year CDS premia ................................................................................................................................. 32 2.4. Ten-year benchmark bond yield ................................................................................................................. 33 2.5. Redemption profile of Italian longer-term sovereign debt ......................................................................... 35 2.6. Ten-year benchmark bond yield ................................................................................................................. 36 2.7. General government fiscal and sovereign debt situation ............................................................................ 37 2.8. Interest payments as a percentage of GDP ................................................................................................. 41 2.9. Euro area ten-year government bond yield and spread to Bund ................................................................. 43 2.10. Standard deviation of ten-year euro area yield spreads to Bund ................................................................ 44 2.11. Volatility of ten-year benchmark yields ..................................................................................................... 44 A.1.1. Nominal spot curve (16 Mar 2011) ............................................................................................................ 67 A.1.2. Spread between five-year forward rate in five years and the five-year spot rate ........................................ 67 A.1.3. Real spot curve (16 Mar 2011) ................................................................................................................... 68 A.1.4. Inflation spot curve (16 Mar 2011) ............................................................................................................ 68 Tables 1.1. Central government gross borrowing and debt in the OECD area ............................................................. 16 1.2. Funding strategy based on marketable gross borrowing needs in OECD area ........................................... 24 3.1. Foreign claims on public sector .................................................................................................................. 51 4.1. Overview of issuing procedures in the OECD ........................................................................................... 58 4.2. Changes in issuing procedures ................................................................................................................... 62 6 OECD SOVEREIGN BORROWING OUTLOOK 2012 © OECD 2012 PREFACE Preface This inaugural edition of the OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook 2012 is published against a challenging global economic backdrop. Despite some encouraging signs in sovereign debt markets and other indicators, the outlook remains highly uncertain. Failure to prevent further contagion from the euro area sovereign debt crisis, renewed pressures in the banking sector, and a growth slowdown in non-OECD economies all present risks for the global economic recovery in the near term. In this situation of great uncertainty, macroeconomic support, while strengthening medium-term fiscal frameworks, is of crucial importance to restore confidence and contain adverse feedback loops. Pro-growth structural reforms also need to be implemented swiftly to improve the borrowing environment by reversing adverse shifts in market sentiment and reducing the funding strains of sovereigns and banks. OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook 2012 provides detailed information on the unprecedented difficulties facing OECD countries in the markets for government securities. The borrowing environment for governments (and corporate) issuers has become even more difficult than usual due to the complications generated by sudden shifts in sentiment and perceptions of risk associated with certain sovereigns: the so- called swings in the ‘risk-on’ and ‘risk-off’ trades. Raising large volumes of funds at lowest cost with acceptable roll-over risk remains a great challenge for a wide range of governments. The Borrowing Outlook outlines strategies and operations for dealing with these challenges. Most OECD debt managers are continuing to rebalance the profile of debt portfolios by issuing more long-term instruments and moderating the issuance of short- term debt. Sound debt management and a balanced macroeconomic policy mix are key requirements for governments to be able to borrow at sustainable yields and to implement better policies to put the global economy back on a path of sustainable growth. Angel Gurría OECD Secretary-General 7 OECD SOVEREIGN BORROWING OUTLOOK 2012 © OECD 2012