Strengthening Resilience in Kiribati with Public Investment: Kiribati

Selected Issues Papers, July 25, 2025

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Kiribati, a collection of remote archipelagos of mostly low-lying atolls, faces significant risks from natural hazards and an existential risk from rising sea levels.
The paper explores the critical needs for public investment in climate-resilient infrastructure to safeguard the nation's long-term prosperity and assesses the macroeconomic implications of such investments.
To build moderate resilience, carefully designed fiscal policies and enhanced public investment efficiency are needed to alleviate the fiscal burden, maximize output gains from better infrastructure, and crowd in private investment, while maintaining debt sustainability.

Climate-resilient public investment is critical to safeguard long-term prosperity in Kiribati given natural hazards and sea-level rise risks.
Moderate resilience can be achieved through a combination of public investment in climate-resilient infrastructure and supportive policy measures.
Enhanced public investment efficiency is necessary to maximize output gains from infrastructure and to mitigate fiscal pressures.
Crowding in private investment is an important complement to public investment for scaling resilience-building efforts.
Debt sustainability must be preserved while increasing resilience investment.

Design fiscal policies carefully to balance the need for increased public investment with the requirement to maintain debt sustainability.
Improve public investment efficiency to alleviate fiscal burden and maximize output gains from infrastructure spending.
Implement measures to crowd in private investment alongside public resilience investments.
Prioritize investments in climate-resilient infrastructure to address natural hazards and rising sea-level risks.

Assessment centers on the macroeconomic implications of public investment in climate-resilient infrastructure.
Emphasis on the interaction of fiscal policy design, public investment efficiency, private investment crowding-in, and debt sustainability to build moderate resilience.