Management and sustainability of external debt: A focus on the emerging economies of Africa

African countries have had the notoriety of being characterized by unsustainable external debt. Despite several announced intents by world development agencies to reverse this trend, there appears to be only minimal progress. This paper points to failure to determine appropriate levels of sustainable external debt, inadequate effective governance infrastructure, and ineffective management of external shocks, as important reasons why Africa's external debt problems have persisted. We derive African-relevant thresholds for sustainable external debt, and highlight quantifiable improvements African countries can experience if they were to adopt better governance infrastructures and effective management of external shocks. © 2011 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Africagrowth Institute.