An important element in government debt management is identification and management of risks. Sound risk management supports the overall objective of the government debt policy: to cover the central-government financing requirement at the lowest possible long-term borrowing costs, while taking the degree of risk into account.

The central-government debt and interest costs depends among other things on the development in interest rates, exchange rates and consumer prices (market risk), the access to capital markets (refinancing risk) and the ability and will of the counterparties to fulfil its payment obligations (counterparty risk).