FAQ
How big is Bhutan's stock market?
Small. The Royal Securities Exchange of Bhutan has a total market capitalisation of about USD 776 million across just 21 listed companies, equal to roughly 29% of GDP. For perspective, Bhutan's entire stock market is worth roughly 10% of a single US mid-cap company. With so few listings and thin trading, it functions more as a share registry than a working market for raising growth capital.
A stock market’s job is to let companies raise equity to grow. Bhutan’s — 21 companies, about USD 776 million in total value — is too small and too thinly traded to do that at any scale. When a Bhutanese business needs serious growth capital, the domestic market cannot supply it, so the company looks abroad, and a slice of its future ownership leaves the country with the funding.
That is the structural gap examined in Paradox #21: a savings-rich country without the capital-formation machinery to put those savings to work at home.