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1/ External debt vs. domestic debt
2/ Private and public debt (classification by debtor)
3/ Classification by creditor
The debt owed by a country can be divided into a number of different categories. Each of the organisations compiling and publishing debt figures may have slightly different ways to measure debt (see further details in "external debt statistics, guide for compilers and users"):
1/ External debt and domestic debt
External debt is generally defined using a residency criterion: it is debt owed by public and private entities resident in a country to non-residents. This type of debt has a direct impact on the balance of payment of the debtor country. However, for practical purposes, external debt is sometimes compiled according to the currency of the debt and without using a residency criterion (being then similar to foreign currency debt).
2/ Private and public debt (classification by debtor)
External debt may be owed by the public sector, or by the private sector. In the first case, it is called public debt, in the second case, private debt. Debt owed by the private sector, but guaranteed by the public sector is often included in the public debt (which is sometimes called "public and publicly guaranteed debt").
3/ Classification by creditor
3.1. Multilateral creditors
Claims granted by international financial institutions (mainly the IMF, the World Bank or regional development banks) are considered as being senior to other categories of bilateral claims. As a consequence, the comparability of treatment provision does not apply to this category of debt (except in the framework of the enhanced HIPC initiative, applied by Paris Club creditors through Cologne terms).
3.2. Official bilateral creditors
These creditors include governments or their appropriate institutions. The Paris Club is comprised of this type of creditor. Although not all official bilateral creditors are members of the Paris Club, Paris Club creditors hold the majority of official bilateral claims. Other official bilateral creditors may participate to Paris Club sessions on an ad-hoc basis.
Official bilateral claims result from two types of financing:
- credits guaranteed by the Governments or their institutions. In most cases, these credits were commercial credits granted to finance imports by the debtor country;
- direct loans from the Governments or their institutions.
Government loans may be under "Official Development Assistance" (ODA) terms, as defined by the OECD (low interest loans aimed at development).
3.3. Private creditors
All the other creditors not mentioned in 3.1. and 3.2. are private creditors. These include suppliers, commercial banks and bondholders.
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