published on cepr.org/voxeu/columns, 01.11.2022
Before Covid-19, the UN estimated that developing countries were facing an annual financing shortfall of $2.5 trillion for advancing the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris climate goals. The pandemic has widened this financing gap substantially. A new CEPR eBook suggests that to close the gap, mobilising domestic financial resources through the local banking system and capital markets and channelling them into domestic investments will be crucial. It is also important to find better approaches to mobilise patient international capital from institutional investors. Multilateral and national development banks ought to play a key role in absorbing private capital and further scaling up investment through concessionary finance.