Fear of Fund” and the Bridgetown Initiative

Sovereign debt has been very much in the news in early 2023 thanks to a combination of factors that have exacerbated debt crises in various parts of the world. Massive COVID expenditures, increasingly extreme climate events, the emergence of China as a major lender to weaker sovereigns and the rise in global interest rates are among them. Unsurprisingly, there are lots of ideas being offered to help deal with the new problems being thrown up by the combination of these features. One of those ideas that has gotten the most traction is the Bridgetown initiative, the brain child of Avinash Persaud. In today’s episode, we ask Avi about Bridgetown and related matters having to do with dealing with the impact of extreme climate events on the debt of poor and climate vulnerable countries.

Producer: Leanna Doty