Inflation Surge and Sovereign Borrowing: The Role of Policy Practices in Strengthening Sovereign Resilience

Sovereign borrowing during inflation surges is a litmus test of a government’s ability to withstand and navigate macroeconomic shocks. Based on transaction-level bond issuance data, we explore how sovereign financing strategies differ between surging and stable inflations and how policy practices affect their ability to weather inflation shocks. We find that governments lean more toward external borrowing in foreign currency during periods of high inflation, in part to reduce borrowing costs. This pattern is particularly prevalent in emerging markets (EMs), especially when the inflation surge is prolonged and severe. We further show that good practices of fiscal discipline and credibly pegged exchange rate regime alleviate external borrowing in foreign currency amid inflation surges.