Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Staff Report for the 2013 Article IV Consultation--Debt Sustainability Analysis

This Debt Sustainability Analysis continues to classify the risk of debt distress as moderate, but Lao P.D.R. is on the verge of a transition to high risk, with heightened vulnerabilities for public debt. The indicative debt distress thresholds remain unchanged from the 2013 Article IV DSA. Under the baseline scenario of the current DSA, some of the external and public debt distress indicators breach the policy-dependent indicative thresholds for some years, the PV of external debt follows a downward trend and returns to levels below the respective thresholds in the medium term. Given the traditional approach classifies the debt distress risk as borderline high/moderate, a probability approach is adopted. The results of the probability approach suggest moderate debt distress risks, since all the indicators remain under their corresponding thresholds, with the exception of debt-to-GDP ratio, which breaches the threshold for a brief period.