The African Development Institute and the International Monetary Fund held a workshop on public sector debt statistics for middle and senior officials from 13 to 24 February in Tunis.

The IMF's statistics department conducts the workshop which covers the subject from both a conceptual and practical point of view. Basic concepts, accounting principles, and detailed classifications are handled in the context of the methodology that is harmonised with the government finance statistics and system of national accounts.

The workshop examines coverage and the accounting rules for the public sector debt statistics framework, valuation, classification, selected methodological issues, and the sources and methods used for compiling the statistics. It also deals with debt data reporting to the IMF and the World Bank, and the workshop is organized around a series of case studies.

Thirty participants from 16 countries are attending the workshop.