This article argues that essential information about sovereign debt must be publicly accessible and intelligible. Sovereign debt is a public institution, and sovereign debt statistics are a matter of public interest. For most stakeholders, information about sovereign debt is hard to find, harder to understand, and often incoherent. The problem is particularly severe when it comes to domestic debt, non-financial terms, and creditor composition. The leading international data templates were originally designed for relatively narrow policy and commercial objectives, with public accountability as a limited side benefit. This helps explain many of the shortcomings in the prevailing data collection and disclosure regime. To avoid past mistakes and create a durable platform for public accountability, sovereign debt data collection and disclosure should be designed for its public constituents: first and foremost, the people of the borrowing country.

中文翻译：

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关于政府债务……谁知道呢？

本文认为，有关主权债务的基本信息必须可公开获取和理解。主权债务是一个公共机构，主权债务统计是一个公共利益问题。对于大多数利益相关者来说，关于主权债务的信息很难找到、更难理解，而且往往是不连贯的。当涉及到国内债务、非财务条款和债权人构成时，这个问题尤其严重。领先的国际数据模板最初是为相对狭窄的政策和商业目标而设计的，将公共问责作为有限的附带利益。这有助于解释现行数据收集和披露制度中的许多缺陷。为了避免过去的错误并为公众问责创造一个持久的平台，