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Asmaa El-Ganainy
Asmaa El-Ganainy is a Deputy Division Chief at the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Institute for Capacity Development (European and Middle Eastern Division). Previously, she contributed to the IMF’s surveillance, lending, research, and capacity development work at the European and Fiscal Affairs Departments. Her experience has covered wide range of countries, including advanced, emerging, and low-income countries. She has also contributed to the IMF’s work on several crisis cases, including Greece at the height of the 2010 European sovereign debt crisis. She has published in the fields of fiscal policy, labour economics, and economic growth, including in the Journal of International Tax and Public Finance, and the IMF Economic Review. Asmaa holds a Ph.D. in economics from Georgia State University (US).
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Public debt through the ages
The history of sovereign debt evolved over time along with the purposes for which governments borrowed: first State-building, then public-good provision, and most recently social welfare and entitlements. Although many periods when debt-to-GDP ratios rose explosively culminated in funding crises, debasements, and restructurings, less widely appreciated are episodes of successful debt consolidation achieved through rapid growth or budgetary discipline. This article analyses the economic and political circumstances that made these debt consolidation episodes possible.
