This special issue paper provides an overview of some of the issues raised by ppps with a particular focus on their fiscal consequences it also looks at government guarantees which are used fairly widely to shield the private sector from risk and are a common feature of ppps. The use of government guarantees in ppps and elsewhere raises some important issues related to the apportionment of risk fiscal transparency incentives and governance among others this chapter describes and discusses these issues but first it clarifies some terminology. International monetary fund imf april 2005 related information financing government risk management tracking reference imf gov guarantees fiscal risk enpdf. Public private partnerships government guarantees and fiscal risk 2 eastern europe and latin america have successfully privatized public enterprises across many sectors by the late 1990s privatization was losing much of its earlier momentum yet concerns about infrastructure remained in many countries it was at this time