Inflation, especially if unanticipated, has often unwanted distributional effects, as it reduces real income of fixed income earners and shifts wealth away from creditors to debtors. Very high and accelerating inflation rates may be caused by excessive financing of public debts through seignorage and can be sign of unsustainable public finances. Total debt consists of external debt (debt held by non-residents) and internal debt (held by residents). For countries where external debt is a major concern, the indicator can alternatively or additionally be defined as total external debt (private and public) divided by GNI.