Are public debt and public debt expectations associated with debt management strategies?

Abstract

With the adoption of the inflation targeting regime in Brazil, the Brazilian public debt indexation structure underwent major transformations. Furthermore, public debt management strategies changed even more radically after the 2008 global financial crisis. Thus, this paper investigates the relationship between the debt indexation strategy, the type of debt indexation structure and the maturity of public securities with public debt and public debt expectations in Brazil. Regarding the debt indexation strategy, we created an indicator that shows whether the debt indexation structure is tending towards a middle-ground composition with respect to the proportions of the indexers, or whether it is tending towards a divergent composition. This indicator enables verifying whether a partial debt indexation strategy is successful in controlling both the public debt and public debt expectations, as this strategy would have the capacity to mitigate risks. Estimates are made for the total sample and for a sub-sample that represents the new debt indexation profile. The results show that a middle-ground debt indexation structure is associated with lower public debt and lower public debt expectations. The findings also reveal that a strategy of replacing floating-rate debt securities with fixed-rate debt securities and price-index debt securities is associated with lower public debt and lower public debt expectations. For the period related to the new debt indexation profile, these associations of a strategy of replacing debt securities as well as a middle-ground composition strategy with public debt and public debt expectations become stronger.