Bangladesh’s hard-won economic resilience is being tested as the twin pressures of climate change and mounting external debt converge to threaten its financial stability.
The country’s debtsustainability outlook, once viewed as robust, is deteriorating amid intensifying climate disasters, faltering export growth, and tighter international credit conditions, according to a new report launched at an international conference recently.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) organized the event– A World Beyond Crisis: Climate Solutions That Work — at the BRAC Centre Inn, Dhaka, attended by policymakers, researchers, youth leaders, and practitioners to explore equitable and practical climate solutions. ‘The results from multiple scenarios and stress tests indicate that the economic loss and damage due to climate change pose a significant threat to Bangladesh’s shortrun debt sustainability, particularly when combined with other shocks such as an increase in interest rates for variable interest rate loans or a fall in exports,’ said the report authors, led by CPD Executive Director Fahmida Khatun.