In the latest twist to the heavily publicised reserve kerfuffle, President Cristina Fernández has this week replaced her contested decree to tap the country’s foreign exchange buffer with a slightly tweaked order to the same end. According to local media, the central bank, now governed by one of Fernández’s close allies, has already started transferring [Read more...]

The Republic of Congo’s unrated US$ 2029 sovereign bond is now trading at an all-time high, reflecting the strength of global risk sentiment in general, and the appetite for African fixed income instruments in particular. While I don’t see any fundamental reason for the instrument to continue rising, I do think its recovery bodes well [Read more...]

One of the things that has been troubling me more and more lately is Japan’s colossal debt burden, which is heading towards 200% of GDP. At the moment, the debt burden is existing in an equilibrium of sorts, with Japanese financial institutions seemingly content to keep buying Japanese Government Bonds (JGBs). In a climate of [Read more...]

Business Monitor’s Emerging Europe team has been cautious regional financial markets over the past several weeks, holding a neutral position across asset classes in the company’s in-house market portfolio since June 12. The long equity positions the team had held through the end of March to early June continue to look shaky amid technical signs [Read more...]