Confederation debt management since 1970

Dr. Basil Guggenheim, Mario Meichle and Dr. Thomas Nellen

Issue
2018-07

Pages
39

JEL classification
E63, H63

Keywords
Government debt, government debt management, government debt maturity

Year
2018

This paper presents new data vintages on marketable debt emissions and total outstanding debt. The data are used to analyze the Swiss Confederation’s issuing behavior and debt management. Issuing behavior became more regular and demand-oriented during the early 1990s. The Treasury actively manages roll-over risk by increasing bond maturity with increasing marketable debt to GDP levels. Furthermore, the Treasury engages in active but asymmetric, one-sided interest rate positioning. In other words, the Treasury uses only bonds to affect debt maturity and does so only when the interest rate environment is favorable to lock-in interest rates by issuing longer-term bonds.