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Bilyana Bogdanova, Tracy Chan, Kristina Micic and Goetz von Peter

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 This statistical feature presents a new data set on long-term debt securities issued by central and general governments in domestic and foreign currencies. It combines national aggregates with data on international issuance and BIS estimates, for improved coverage across all markets of issue. The annual series cover 54 countries, including 28 advanced economies and 26 emerging market economies (EMEs) from the early 2000s in most cases. These series reveal that the issuance of government bonds accelerated over the past decade and surged with the onset of the pandemic in 2020. With major EMEs increasingly tapping bond markets in their domestic currency, the foreign currency share in EME government bonds has continued to decline.

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Enhancing the BIS government bond statistics

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https://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qt2106c.htm

Data are released every quarter. The publication date and the latest reference period are shown in the <a href='/release-calendar?filter=categoryId%3DDSS'>Statistics release calendar</a>.

How often and when are the debt securities statistics updated?

Explore the debt securities statistics dashboard to get quick visual insights into our statistics, analyse country and global developments and build your own data stories. This data set covers borrowing activity in debt capital markets.

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https://dataviz.bis.org/t/DataPortal/views/ds/Main

 The BIS has revised its debt securities statistics to enhance their comparability across different markets. This feature by Branimir Gruić and Philip Wooldridge (BIS) sketches the main changes and the reasoning behind them. International issues have been redefined as debt securities issued outside the market where the borrower resides, and statistics combining international and domestic issues are being released for the first time. The revised statistics highlight the growing size and internationalisation of bond markets. 

Enhancements to the BIS debt securities statistics

https://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qt1212h.htm

 The debt securities statistics are from national data sources. 

What are the main sources for the debt securities statistics?

Overview of statistical tables on BIS debt securities data

https://www.bis.org/statistics/debt_sec/overviewDebtSec.pdf

Domestic (international) debt securities are issued in (outside) the local market of the country where the borrower resides, regardless of the currency denomination of the security.

What is the difference between domestic market and international market?

C1, C5 and C6: Reporting practices for debt securities statistics

https://www.bis.org/statistics/debt_sec/coverageC1_C5_C6.pdf

The currency of denomination is determined by the currency in which the value of positions and flows for debt securities are fixed, as specified in the contract between the institution units (HSS, paragraph 7.54)

Debt securities statistics (SDMX2.1 Compact)

/static/bulk/WS_NA_SEC_DSS_sdmx-compact-2.1.zip

C4: Reporting practices for central and general government debt securities, by currency

https://www.bis.org/statistics/coverage_c4.pdf

For fixed interest rate debt securities, the contractual nominal coupon payments are fixed in terms of the currency of denomination for the life of the debt security, or for a certain number of years (HSS, paragraph 7.37). Variable interest rate debt securities have their coupon or principal payments (or both) linked to a general price index for goods and services, interest rate or asset price (HSS, paragraph 7.40).

What is the difference between fixed and variable interest rate?

Debt securities statistics (SDMX2.1 Generic)

/static/bulk/WS_NA_SEC_DSS_sdmx-generic-2.1.zip

Floating rate is variable excluding the inflation-linked interest rate (ie interest rate-linked or asset price-linked).

International debt securities from national sources are reported by national authorities, while international debt securities from security-level data are compiled by the BIS from commercial sources.

What is the difference between international debt securities from national sources in this data set and international debt securities compiled from security-level data by the BIS?

Debt securities statistics

Dashboards

Debt securities statistics dashboard

Tables

C1Summary of debt securities outstanding

C2Central government debt securities

C4Central and general government debt securities, by currency

C5Debt securities issues, amounts outstanding and net transactions

C6Debt securities holdings, amounts outstanding