Government borrowing
Although most of the resources required for public spending are raised each year through taxation, it is rare for any modern budget to balance in any one year. For a variety of reasons, ranging from a desire to accelerate capital spending to a policy of economic stabilization, governments may choose to raise some of their resources by borrowing rather than taxation. Most countries today run an annual budget deficit, and the deficits have tended to increase in size. For some countries—such as the United States and many developing countries—this means that the burden of the debt has been steadily increasing. Although many European countries also run a current deficit and their total debt may be increasing in size, the rate of increase is often much smaller than that of the United States and often below the rate of growth of national income. Thus, the burden of the debt is increasing less rapidly and, in some countries, may even fall. In times of inflation it may be possible for a government to run a deficit without actually increasing the real burden of debt, as inflation erodes the real value of its existing debt.
Although most countries ran a deficit budget in the late 20th century in response to a world recession and high rates of inflation, only a minority did so in the 1960s. In the European Economic Community (later succeeded by the European Union), on average over the period 1960–73, only Belgium, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom ran a deficit.
Forms of public debt
The necessity for governments to borrow in order to finance a deficit budget has led to the development of various forms of public debt, which are now a central feature of all capital markets. Governments may owe public debt in the form of bonds, notes, bills, and the like, which require specified payments to the holders at designated times. For the most part, public debt differs from private debt only in that it is an obligation of government rather than of private individuals or corporations.
Public debt may be classified according to various criteria.
External and internal debt
If the debt is held outside of the issuing jurisdiction, it is called external; if it is held within the jurisdiction, it is called internal. The U.S. national debt is almost entirely internal, while the debts of many developing countries and of local governments in the United States are largely external.
Maturity period
Public debt ranges in maturity downward from infinity to periods of a month or even a few days. Debt instruments without a maturity date, requiring merely the payment of interest, are often called consols. The name originated in Great Britain, where the first important indeterminate-period debt issue happened to be one that consolidated a number of separate issues.
A large portion of government debt consists of bonds with specific maturities of five years to 99 years or more. Twenty- and 30-year periods are common. These are often known as long-term or funded debt.
Debt of maturity less than five years is often called short-term or floating debt and may take several forms: notes, with maturities from one to five years; treasury bills, with maturities from one month to a year and often sold at auction; and certificates of indebtedness, with similar maturity periods but available at a fixed interest rate.
The length of the maturity period affects what is known as the liquidity of the debt—i.e., how quickly it can be converted into money. Securities with very short maturity periods are constantly repayable in money and thus have maximum liquidity. As the period of maturity increases, the liquidity falls, unless a capital loss is to be incurred, and the pure debt characteristic increases.
Type of issuer
Government debt may be directly issued by a government or by semiautonomous governmental organizations. Examples of the latter would include the railways and provincial power authorities in Canada and various federal lending agencies in the United States. Their issues may be guaranteed by the government (general obligation bonds) or may rest solely upon the enterprises themselves, to be paid out of their revenues. In the United States the latter type of obligation is known as a revenue bond.
Marketability
The great bulk of all government debt consists of marketable securities. These securities are negotiable and are sold freely on the market. They are usually issued in relatively large denominations, $1,000 or higher, and interest is paid by check or coupon on a periodic basis. Since they are salable, their price fluctuates from time to time, going above maturity value when the current market interest rate falls below the interest rate that they bear and falling below the maturity value when the current rate rises or when fear about the ability of the government to pay interest develops.
Other bonds bought by the public are not marketable but can be redeemed, at least after a specified period, for their principle plus accrued interest. Various savings bonds, including those of the United States, are of this kind.
Other characteristics
Bondholders may receive current interest either by redemption of coupons attached to the bonds or by check from the government. Alternatively, interest may be receivable only upon maturity or redemption of the bond, as in the case of savings bonds. Interest and principal are usually payable in fixed monetary units, but they may be payable in amounts with fixed purchasing power based on changes in price levels.