Filtered by Region: Emerging Markets Use setting Emerging Markets
We think MSCI’s India Index will fall over the next couple of quarters in local-currency (LC) terms, amid subdued domestic economic activity and a general deterioration in investors’ appetite for “risky” assets. While it was among the best performers in …
9th March 2023
The National Bank of Poland (NBP) left its main policy rate on hold as expected today, at 6.75%, and we don’t think policymakers will rule out further rate hikes just yet (today’s statement gave little away in terms of guidance). But with inflation likely …
8th March 2023
Non-performing loan (NPL) ratios have risen by as much as 4-5%-pts during non-banking crisis downturns in EMs in the past. This time around, there are reasons to think that the increase will be smaller and EM banks generally look well placed to cope. But …
6th March 2023
As political risks appear to be largely discounted by investors, we expect the Colombian peso to outperform other major EM currencies over the next couple of years. Although the Colombian peso is broadly unchanged against the greenback so far this year, …
2nd March 2023
The Israeli shekel has been amongst the worst performing currencies over the past month amid a rise in risk premia in Israel. We think it may remain under pressure against the US dollar over the coming months; but we doubt it will keep underperforming its …
1st March 2023
The manufacturing PMIs for February remained very weak in most EMs, but they did at least provide signs that industry across much of the emerging world has fared better so far this year than it did in late 2022. Meanwhile, there were encouraging signs …
Last week’s European Court of Justice (ECJ) opinion on Poland’s Swiss franc mortgage dispute dealt yet another blow to Poland’s banking sector and will expose those banks with large FX loan portfolios. The sector as a whole looks strong, but many banks …
23rd February 2023
Figures released today highlight the dreadful demographic outlook facing Korea, with the population (excluding migrants) falling for a third year in a row. Poor demographics are the key reason why we expect trend growth in Korea to continue slowing over …
22nd February 2023
Russia’s budget deficit has widened sharply in recent months and is likely to remain under pressure amid lower oil prices and rising military spending. The government is unlikely to experience severe fiscal strains this year, but the public finances are …
21st February 2023
Nigeria’s presidential election this weekend could be one of several EM elections this year (including Turkey and Argentina) that see opposition victories and a turn away from unorthodox policymaking. The experience from elsewhere in the emerging world is …
The Bank of Israel (BoI) hiked interest rates by another 50bp, to 4.25%, today and while it continued to point to signs of slower growth, it sounded more concerned about the strength of inflation than it did at its last meeting. It now looks likely that …
20th February 2023
EM investment surged far above pre-pandemic levels last year, but there was a clear divergence across countries and we think investment growth will slow in 2023. One worrying development is that investment has continued to lag behind in countries where it …
We expect MSCI’s Brazil Index to drop over the next couple of quarters in local-currency (LC) terms, before it begins to recover towards the end of this year. Since end-October, equities in Brazil have generally underperformed equities in other major …
17th February 2023
EM core inflation jumped to its highest rate in almost two decades in January. That can partly be pinned on China, where core inflation has risen from a very low rate. In most other EMs, core inflation has passed its peak, which should allow policymakers …
16th February 2023
The raft of EM central bank meetings over the past couple of weeks reinforces the view that monetary tightening cycles have now drawn to a close or are very close to doing so, several months earlier than in their DM counterparts. Policymakers in some EM …
10th February 2023
Foreign capital inflows have been soft this year in spite of the improvement in the economic outlook for EMs and the weaker dollar. And the very latest data suggest that capital has flowed out of EMs recently, which is a trend that we think is likely to …
9th February 2023
The recent earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria are a human tragedy and foremost in everyone’s minds. Nonetheless, the financial markets will also need to bear in mind the economic cost and, to the extent that this provides some comfort, the damage to …
7th February 2023
Investors’ concerns about sovereign debt risks in frontier markets have eased a touch recently but several countries, particularly Tunisia and Pakistan, remain on the path to default. The latest (and last-minute) demands from China in debt talks with …
We’ve received a lot of questions recently about the impact of China’s re-opening on EMs, including at our monthly Drop-in today. This Update answers three key questions on the winners and losers, the inflationary impact and the outlook for EM financial …
2nd February 2023
EM banks will face an increase in loan losses this year, but the good news is that banking sectors on the whole appear well-placed to absorb these, particularly in parts of Latin America, Emerging Europe and the MENA where capital buffers are high. That …
The manufacturing PMIs picked up in most emerging markets in January, offering hope that the worst for EM industry may have now passed. But activity remains soft against the backdrop of high interest rates and weak global external demand. The aggregate …
1st February 2023
Consumer spending in emerging markets initially recovered quickly from the pandemic, but it looks like high interest rates and inflation caused spending growth to slow sharply over the second half of last year. And we think consumer spending is likely to …
27th January 2023
China’s statutory retirement ages for men and women are low. But raising them would not make a big difference to the size of the workforce since most workers today keep working once they have passed retirement age. Only a quarter of men drop out of the …
25th January 2023
China’s re-opening will have a significant impact on the rest of the emerging world by lifting commodity prices. That will improve the terms of trade of EM commodity producers, particularly Chile, Peru and the Gulf economies. However, we think that this …
The powerful re-opening rally in China’s stock market has eroded a large part of the valuation gap that led us to judge that equities there were relatively appealing a couple of months ago. That said, we think there’s still some scope for it to continue …
18th January 2023
The surge in FDI inflows to a 15-year high in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) last year will partly unwind this year given the weaker global macro backdrop. But we think that a large part of the increase reflected structural forces, which will keep FDI …
17th January 2023
It looks highly likely that Tunisia’s government will this year follow in the footsteps of Sri Lanka and Ghana by defaulting on its external debts. Fortunately, public debt risks elsewhere don’t look as acute. But while the focus is on sovereign …
We have revised up our forecasts for equities in China, given a brighter outlook for the economy there. We have also increased our China 10-year sovereign bond yield forecast for end-2023, as we think that a faster economic recovery will lead to tighter …
13th January 2023
Foreign capital inflows into EMs have picked up a little since the beginning of the year. This should provide some relief to those countries with sizeable current account deficits, including Chile, Colombia, Philippines, and several countries in Central …
11th January 2023
In this Update , we take a look at the key elections that are scheduled across the emerging world this year. The most notable ones are in Argentina, Nigeria and Turkey, where opposition victories could be the catalyst for a shift away from the …
10th January 2023
China’s abandonment of its zero-COVID policy could lead to supply chain disruption in other EMs, particularly other parts of Asia and Mexico, though we’re not too concerned yet. And outbound Chinese tourism is likely to soar, to the benefit of Hong Kong …
4th January 2023
Although the manufacturing PMIs for December picked up in some highly-open EMs in Asia and Central Europe, industry in these countries remains very weak. And the surveys suggest that activity has softened further in major EMs including China (due to …
3rd January 2023
We expect lower global risk appetite, as well as rising country-specific risk premia in some cases, to put upward pressure on the yields of 10-year local-currency (LC) government bonds in emerging markets (EM) in the first half of 2023. But later in the …
21st December 2022
This is part of a series of reports outlining our key macro and market calls for 2023. Click here to view the full series. Our latest EM Outlook can be found here . EMs will experience one of the broadest slowdowns in GDP growth in 2023 since the 1990s. …
15th December 2022
A widening of Russia’s budget deficit next year to 2.5% of GDP will increase pressure on the government to keep a firm grip on non-military spending. But it should be able to finance the shortfall from its savings and domestic bond issuance. The bigger …
14th December 2022
The statement accompanying the Brazilian central bank’s meeting yesterday, at which the Selic rate was left at 13.75%, made clear that policymakers are increasingly concerned about fiscal loosening when president-elect Lula takes power. This reinforces …
8th December 2022
The EM manufacturing PMI broadly plateaued in November, but the surveys remained weak in parts of Central Europe and recorded sharp declines in Brazil, Colombia and Vietnam. On the bright side, price pressures appear to be easing further . The aggregate …
1st December 2022
EM GDP rebounded in Q3, but this is unlikely to be the start of a sustained upturn. Headwinds in the form of high inflation, tight monetary policy and weak external demand will drag on growth in the coming year and our 2023 GDP forecasts are generally …
30th November 2022
We think the stretched valuations of Indian equities compared to those elsewhere will prevent the standout performance of Indian equities seen so far in 2022 being sustained over the longer run. The performance of India’s stock market has been fairly …
28th November 2022
Monetary tightening cycles in EMs are advanced relative to DMs, and are now drawing to a close in many countries. Elevated inflation will mean that policy will stay tight over the coming months, but the conditions for several EM central banks to start …
24th November 2022
Russia’s agreement to extend the Black Sea grain deal with Ukraine should help to keep a lid on wheat and corn prices over the coming months, reducing upward pressure on inflation in the emerging world and alleviating economic imbalances. Countries that …
21st November 2022
High carry emerging market (EM) currencies have generally fared better than their low carry counterparts over recent months, but we doubt this will continue. We think currencies in EM Asia will fare best over the next two quarters, despite their low …
18th November 2022
Having increased sharply throughout the year, we think that emerging market (EM) local currency sovereign bond yields will probably only increase by a little more in the first half of next year, despite a looming world recession. Yields may then start to …
Foreign capital inflows into EM financial markets have risen sharply so far this month, as investor risk appetite has improved. But with the global economy set to enter recession, we aren’t convinced that this will last as EMs are likely to find it more …
16th November 2022
The dramatic improvement in EM public finances since the height of the pandemic is starting to run out of steam. And we think that fiscal dynamics are likely to get worse next year in parts of Central Europe and in most commodity-producing countries. …
11th November 2022
Nigeria’s demonetisation efforts are likely to add to already-high economic costs of the country’s unorthodox policies. The resulting currency falls will fuel inflation further and disruptions to activity are more or less inevitable, supporting our …
10th November 2022
Our seasonally-adjusted measure of aggregate EM goods exports recorded a decline in dollar terms in September and leading indicators point to further falls over the rest of the year. And with commodity prices on a downward trend and the global economy …
8th November 2022
Brazil’s financial markets have been some of the world’s best performers lately, supported in part by the prospect of centrist policymaking by incoming president Lula. With the presidential election now complete, and Lula set to be inaugurated soon, a …
Although the aggregate EM manufacturing PMI rose in October, a closer look at the surveys shows that there was a widespread deterioration in EM industry. Highly-open manufacturing economies including Taiwan, Czechia and Poland are struggling in …
2nd November 2022
A closer look at core inflation across EMs suggests that underlying price pressures have started to ease. But they remain very strong by historic standards in most countries – and particularly so in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The CEE economies …
26th October 2022
