Filtered by Region: Emerging Markets Use setting Emerging Markets
The ramp-up in public capital expenditure in the last five years has helped to ease some of the bottlenecks that had previously acted as a constraint on India’s economy. Despite the Modi government’s weakened electoral mandate, there are good reasons to …
11th June 2024
Although we expect equities in general to fare well over the next year or so, we think that falls in most commodity prices will weigh on the energy and materials sectors. That would be bad news for stock markets with big energy/materials exposure and …
10th June 2024
Mexican President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum’s strong environmental credentials mean that a shift away from fossil fuels and towards renewables is likely during her tenure. We doubt that she’ll fully open up the energy sector to private investment and think …
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) kicked off its easing cycle today with a 150bps rate cut, and while further cuts are likely, ongoing negotiations with the IMF for a new long-term loan deal mean that the pace of further loosening is likely to be …
The RBI kept the repo rate on hold at 6.50% today as expected but, notably, two of out of the six MPC members voted for a cut. With inflation likely to continue falling over the coming months, we maintain our long-held view that the easing cycle will …
7th June 2024
Aggregate EM GDP growth remained strong in Q1, though we still expect a slowdown later this year. At a regional level, Emerging Asia will lead the pack, however there are tentative signs that recoveries in parts of Central and Eastern Europe and Latin …
6th June 2024
Narendra Modi will begin his third term as India’s Prime Minister with a weakened mandate and that will make the passage of contentious economic reforms more difficult. But he will still be able to work as the head of a stable coalition, and the broader …
4th June 2024
Global demand is giving a bigger boost to China’s economy than we had anticipated this year and foreign tariffs will make little difference to aggregate export performance in the near term. We now think that China’s economy will expand 5.5% this year as a …
The EM manufacturing PMI remained at a three-year high in May but the picture is becoming increasingly nuanced at a country level. Meanwhile, the PMIs also showed price pressures rose again last month, matching the signs of recent strength seen in other …
3rd June 2024
Our initial response to Claudia Sheinbaum’s victory in Mexico’s presidential election can be found here . We also held a Drop-in earlier today. This Update summarises the key points that we discussed and answers some of the client questions that we …
The decision by OPEC+ to keep oil production lower over the rest of this year means that oil sectors in the Gulf will grow more slowly than we had previously anticipated and we have revised down our GDP growth forecasts for this year and next. The …
This report was first published on Friday 31st May covering the official PMIs. We added commentary on the Caixin manufacturing PMI on Monday 3rd June and the Caixin services and composite PMIs on Wednesday 5th June. Recovery still ongoing The PMIs for May …
31st May 2024
Sovereign bond yields in Russia have surged to multi-year highs this year as markets have increasingly questioned the trade-off between the war effort on the one hand and policymakers’ ability to maintain fiscal stability and control inflation on the …
29th May 2024
A victory for Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico’s election on Sunday is likely to see a continuation of Amlo’s generous social policies – which will also make Banxico’s fight against inflation harder. The main points of contrast with Amlo are that she will face …
Resolution of China’s property crisis would result in residential sales being substantially higher than today. Sales could rise by a third. But we wouldn’t expect prices to increase by much, if at all. And property construction activity will be weaker in …
24th May 2024
The sharp drop in frontier market sovereign dollar bond spreads this year has caught many by surprise. We think there’s a case that the bond rally may have gone too far in Argentina, Ecuador and Tunisia. But the decline in spreads in some frontiers, …
Croatia has established itself as one of the fastest growing economies in the EU and we think that it will maintain GDP growth of around 3% p.a. over 2024-26. Income convergence – which has been rapid in recent years – will continue over the rest of this …
23rd May 2024
The Bank of Korea left its policy rate on hold today (at 3.5%) and appeared to indicate that interest rates would not be cut until it was confident that inflation would fall back to target. Given our view that price pressures will ease further over the …
After exiting recession in Q1, Saudi Arabia’s economy should continue to expand over the rest of this year on the back of strong private non-oil growth and higher oil output. But next month’s OPEC meeting is likely to be a close call and if the group (led …
22nd May 2024
The sharp rise in Brazil’s goods exports and the widening of the trade surplus since 2019 have been a point of strength for the economy. But we think these will reverse course before long. This feeds into our below-consensus GDP growth forecasts and our …
21st May 2024
Some of the structural problems in China’s economy have their roots in its excessively high savings rate (and underconsumption). For many other EMs, savings rates are also a problem but for the opposite reason – they’re too low . This is particularly so …
The political turmoil in Vietnam, which has led to a number of key leaders being sacked from their posts, is undermining the country’s reputation for stability, which until now has been one of its key selling points to foreign investors. The political …
20th May 2024
The death of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi yesterday creates greater uncertainty over the succession planning for the next Supreme Leader. But, taking a step back, the balance of political power within Iran means that there is unlikely to be a major …
For much of the past year, the dollar has strengthened against emerging market (EM) currencies even as EM sovereign dollar bond spreads have narrowed. One way or another, that is unlikely to last. One relatively unusual feature of the strengthening of the …
16th May 2024
India is benefitting economically from maintaining its historical non-aligned stance in response to tensions between the West and Russia, and Iran to a lesser extent. But notwithstanding a potential universal tariff on all US imports under a second Trump …
Government purchases of unsold housing may help to stabilise China’s property sector in the near-term, alleviating a key economic headwind. But they won’t prevent the sector from shrinking considerably further by the end of this decade. At its quarterly …
This note answers some of the most frequently asked questions that we received from clients during a recent online briefing about the latest US tariffs on China. Watch the original briefing here . What has been announced? Yesterday was the end of a …
15th May 2024
Egypt’s shift back toward economic orthodoxy will result in near-term economic pain, but it could also pave the way for faster economic growth over a longer horizon. Part of that will rest on Egypt capitalising on its improved external competitiveness, …
We expect total returns from both US dollar-denominated, and especially local-currency (LC), emerging market (EM) sovereign bonds to trump, in general, those from US Treasuries in the next couple of years. Dollar-denominated and LC EM sovereign bond …
The tariffs announced today on US imports from China won’t cause much direct economic damage since trade in the affected goods is already low. But US economic sanctions on China seem to act like a ratchet: they only ever get tighter. In many areas that …
14th May 2024
Increased immigration would be the easiest way for Singapore to offset a decline in the working age population. However, such a move would be politically controversial, and deciding how many foreign workers to allow into the country will be one of the …
The dissolution of Kuwait’s parliament for the fourth time in two years highlights political infighting that has held back the economy for years. While much remains uncertain, there is now a clear path for fiscal policy to be loosened and help to unlock …
13th May 2024
The fiscal tightening steps announced by Turkey’s finance ministry today, which include a freeze on most public construction projects, will help to prevent the large budget deficit from widening even further this year and contribute to the rebalancing …
Capital flows into EM bonds and equities have fallen to their lowest in six months as investors have pared back expectations for Fed interest rate cuts. However, even with these moves, we remain more dovish than the market on the Fed and so believe there …
Rebound in inflation set to be limited due to overcapacity PPI deflation eased and CPI inflation rose in March, but they remained relatively subdued compared with pre-pandemic norms. We think inflation will continue to edge up in the near term. But …
Credit downturn threatens the recovery Broad credit growth slowed sharply to its weakest pace on record last month. This threatens to derail the ongoing economic recovery and is likely to trigger additional policy easing. Increased fiscal support may help …
Although the recent weakness in exports from China suggest that a sharp rebound in global goods trade probably isn’t on the cards, we still expect global trade to rise this year after a very weak 2023. And while conflict in the Red Sea has caused some …
10th May 2024
The scale of the economic impact of the floods that have affected much of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul will depend on how long it takes for the waters to recede and for reconstruction efforts to get underway. Given the region’s importance to …
9th May 2024
Private sector savings surged in Israel during the pandemic and jumped again last year amid the war in Gaza. We estimate that those built up due to the war are equivalent to around 3.0% of GDP and could be used to fund consumption, particularly if …
The persistent strength in core services inflation in some EMs outside Asia raises the chances that central banks cut interest rates by less than the consensus expects this year, not least because it comes amid a strengthening of the US dollar and …
The South African government has turned to fiscal austerity in an effort to stabilise the public debt ratio and to keep investors on board, but this is likely to become harder to do post-election. While a lot depends on the form of coalition government …
Extreme heat across parts of India could be particularly damaging to the agriculture sector through both a drop in crop yields and a fall in labour productivity. But industry and services aren’t immune; a surge in demand for electricity to power cooling …
China’s leadership argues that the country’s export success in industries like auto production is a reflection of its technological strength. It understandably doesn’t want to focus on another factor at play: the persistent weakness of domestic consumer …
8th May 2024
The Mexican government’s pre-election spending spree means that the next administration will have its work cut out to put the country’s public finances back onto a stable footing. Claudia Sheinbaum, the frontrunner to be the next president, has so far …
Saudi Arabia’s budget deficit widened further at the start of this year and, for now at least, the government seems comfortable with maintaining the loose fiscal stance and issuing more debt. If oil prices fall back further as we expect, however, a return …
7th May 2024
The latest manufacturing PMIs suggest that global industry continued to recover at the start of Q2, but that this was entirely due to higher output in emerging markets, while activity remained much weaker in advanced economies. Meanwhile, the increase in …
2nd May 2024
The EM manufacturing PMI for April showed that industry continued its strong start to the year through to the beginning of Q2. At a regional level, the narrative was largely unchanged: India remains the star performer, while industry in Central Europe …
Slight hawkish shift at the CNB, but rates to fall further than most expect The communications accompanying the decision by the Czech National Bank (CNB) to cut its policy rate by 50bp again today (to 5.25%) were slightly more hawkish than expected, but …
Korea is one of the few countries in the region where inflation is still above target. However, with economic growth set to slow and the government stepping up efforts to bring food prices down, we expect the headline rate to fall back to target by the …
Chinese policymakers won’t risk reliving the turmoil of 2015 by engineering a sudden devaluation of the renminbi . They may allow the currency to weaken gradually over the coming years to help industry deal with oversupply or to offset the impact of new …
1st May 2024
