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Central banks have multiple interests in the development of bond markets. At a fundamental level, the government bond markets help to fund budget deficits in a non-inflationary way and so enhance the effectiveness of monetary policy. In addition, many central banks use government bond markets for the conduct of monetary policy. They often act as agents for the government in various aspects of the management of government debt. They oversee clearance and settlement systems, and they are responsible for the stability of the financial system, often directly supervising banks. This multiplicity of interests means that the policy issues that arise are very diverse. Many of them were considered by a small group of central bankers at the BIS during a two-day meeting in December 2001. This paper summarises some of the more important issues discussed in this volume.

There has been a very large increase in emerging market debt securities outstanding during the past few years. For emerging markets as a group, outstanding bonds amounted to 36% of GDP in 2000, compared with only 24% in 1994 (Table 1). During this period, the proportion of short-term debt in Latin American domestic debt has fallen appreciably.