How did the Belgian public debt evolve over time?

"The evolution of the Belgian public debt between 1980 and 2016 is analysed in this paper. The analysis is conducted on the changes of the gross debt, the ratio gross debt to gross domestic product, the interest rates and the maturity structure. Belgium has known a period with an extremely high level of indebtedness in the nineties but has been able to reduce it afterwards. The interest rates have diminished through the studied period while the average maturity of the debt has been going up in the years of the period. Regarding the policy followed for the debt management, a consensus in favour of the fiscal insurance theory exists among the main authors in the field. However, we see in practice that the debt managers follow the other one: the cost-risk minimization. The data and the report from the Belgian debt managers suggest it is also the case here."