If there is one thing that characterises both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, it is, by their very nature, their internationalism. Their results over their 70-odd-year histories have been achieved through collaboration – the greater the collaboration, the better the result.
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At the beginning of 2018, emerging markets were in the midst of a bull run that promised to extend across the year. Positive momentum proved unsustainable as the world came to terms with trade tensions and fears of contagion from idiosyncratic risk.
Following a very successful first foray into the bond market in April, the International Development Association can expect future issues to be just as popular as sustainability gains favour among investors.
October will be a critical month for Venezuela – if PDVSA, the state-owned oil giant, defaults on a US$949m principal and interest payments due on its 2020 bonds, creditors could try to seize its crown jewel, Citgo, its US refining and service station subsidiary.
Since the Reserve Bank of India simplified the country’s external commercial borrowing guidelines in April, housing finance companies have found a new lease of life.
The yen bond market has sprung back to life after years of drought, thanks to a tightening of swap spreads and the retreat of long-dated JGBs from deeply negative yield territory. Issuance volume has been the highest since the start of the Global Financial Crisis and the bonanza looks set to continue.
When investors piled into Argentina’s US$2.75bn Century bond in June last year, few could have anticipated that just 12 months later the country would once again be calling on the International Monetary Fund for financial help.
The International Monetary Fund believes its latest, US$112.3m extended credit facility to Malawi will usher in structural reforms that will enable the country fulfil its economic potential for the first time in many years.
Belated action from the central bank has put Turkey on the road to regaining credibility among international investors.
If there is an equity sale that sums up both the staggering potential of Vietnam’s capital markets and the danger of assuming any deal to be a sure thing in this frontier state, it is surely Techcombank’s.
In June, Greece passed a major milestone on its journey of financial redemption, having successfully exited its rescue package and won praise for enacting painful reforms that should improve its finances in the long term. It is entitled to feel optimistic as it contemplates a return to the bond markets, but winning back the trust of investors will not be easy.