Accounting for sovereign debt restructurings under IPSAS
21 May, 2015
The staff of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) have developed a short audio podcast and an accompanying publication to highlight how International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) reflect the accounting consequences of sovereign debt restructuring transactions.
Both, the podcast and the publication, use a question and answer format and highlight issues which may be encountered in a sovereign debt restructuring. They illustrate how IPSASs, at a high level of principle, capture the economic consequences of debt restructurings. The relevant standards (IPSASs 28–30) were developed in 2008 with reference to the IFRS financial instruments standards in place at that time (IAS 32, IAS 39, and IFRS 7); a project to update the standards with reference to the requirements of IFRS 9 has been added to the IPSASB's agenda.
Please click to access the podcast (6 minutes) and the accompanying publication (5 pages) on the IPSASB website.