Question 31

Does the Executive’s Budget Proposal or any supporting budget documentation present information on government borrowing and debt, including its composition, for the year preceding the budget year (BY-1)? (The core information must include the total debt outstanding at the end of BY-1; the amount of net new borrowing required during BY-1; interest payments on the debt; interest rates on the debt instruments; maturity profile of the debt; and whether it is domestic or external debt.)
 * a. Yes, information beyond the core elements is presented for government debt.
 * b. Yes, the core information is presented for government debt.
 * c. Yes, information is presented, but it excludes some core elements.
 * d. No, information related to government debt is not presented.
 * e. Not applicable/other (please comment).

Guidelines
Question 31 focuses on prior-year debt information, rather than on prior-year expenditures or revenues, asking whether “core” information is provided on government borrowing and debt, including its composition, for the year preceding the budget year (BY-1).

The “core” information includes:
 * total debt outstanding at the end of BY-1;
 * amount of net new borrowing required during BY-1;
 * interest payments on the debt;
 * interest rates on the debt instruments;
 * maturity profile of the debt; and
 * whether it is domestic or external debt.

This core information for BY-1 is consistent with the budget year information for borrowing and debt, which is examined in Questions 13 and 14. Please note that for the purposes of this question, the deficit may be accepted as a proxy for net new borrowing.

In addition, some governments provide information beyond the core elements, such as gross new borrowing required during BY-1; currency of the debt; whether the debt carries a fixed or variable interest rate; whether it is callable; a profile of the creditors (bilateral institutions, multilateral institutions, commercial banks, Central Bank, etc.); where appropriate, what the debt is being used to finance.

To answer “a,” the Executive’s Budget Proposal or supporting documentation must present all of the core information related to government borrowing and debt, including its composition, for BY-1 as well as some additional information beyond the core elements. To answer “b,” the Executive’s Budget Proposal or supporting documentation must present all of the core components noted above. Answer “b” is also accepted if one of the core elements is not presented but additional information beyond the core elements is presented. A “c” answer applies if some information related to government borrowing and debt, including its composition, but some of the core pieces of information are not included. Answer “d” applies if no information is presented on government borrowing and debt for BY-1.

1) What if debt information is presented for only the first six months of BY-1?
If there is some debt information for BY-1 but not for the full year, this would qualify as a “c” response.

2) What if debt information is presented for only the first six months of BY-1?
During a team meeting in OBS 2021, we noted that many questions are very specific about looking for budget-year information and we should only score these a "d" if they do not include that. The only indicator where we could give credit for BY-1 information is this question - Question 31.