With lower global interest rates and renewed access to international bond markets, external debt pressures in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have appeared to ease in 2024. However, this apparent aggregate recovery masks profound heterogeneity across low- and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICS), with diverging trajectories carrying distinct risks and challenges that will be heightened following the outburst of the war in Iran and the Middle East. […]