The use of public debt is not new in financing developmental objectives. A significant challenge arose when it became obvious that the indebted countries could not fulfill its existing financial obligation to the rest of the world where debt is sourced. For a panel of 4 heterogeneous countries from 1990 to 2017, we study governments’ reactions to debt accumulation and the corrective measures taken when its borrowings result in a rise in debt–GDP ratio. The study evidence is based on the fixed effect and the feasible generalized least squares estimators. We find evidence that primary balance improves by about 0.005–0.013 for every 1 percentage point increase in central government debt after controlling for other relevant factors. The results further suggest that the accrued interest payments on debt reflect the effective debt management policies across the countries, whereas the activities on the current account balance impose a possible threat to the primary balance. The study calls for policies that increase fiscal bases through the reduction in fiscal expenditure and the reinforcement of tax base revenue across the MIST countries.

在为发展目标筹措资金时，使用公共债务并不是什么新鲜事。当债务国显然无法履行其对债务来源世界其他地区现有的财政义务时，便提出了一项重大挑战。在1990年至2017年间由4个异质国家组成的小组中，我们研究了政府对债务积累的反应，以及政府借贷导致债务与GDP比率上升时采取的纠正措施。研究证据基于固定效应和可行的广义最小二乘估计。我们发现有证据表明，在控制了其他相关因素之后，中央政府债务每增加1个百分点，基本平衡就会提高约0.005-0.013。结果还表明，应计的债务利息支付反映了各国有效的债务管理政策，而经常账户余额上的活动对基本余额构成了可能的威胁。该研究呼吁通过减少MIST国家的财政支出和加强税基收入来增加财政基数的政策。