Figures compiled by Citi Research show that emerging markets (EMs) issued $394bn in external sovereign and corporate bonds in the first nine months of 2018, down by 16.5% from $472bn in the same period of 2017. Gross debt issuance in Asia excluding Japan reached $193bn or 49% of the total, followed by the Middle East & Africa (ME&A) with $95bn (24.1%), Latin America with $61bn (15.5%) and Emerging Europe with $46bn (11.7%). Further, EM corporates issued $275bn in bonds in the first nine months of the year, equivalent to 69.8% of total sovereign and corporate bond issuance. Asia ex-Japan issued $182bn, or 66.2% of total corporate issuance, followed by the ME&A region with $37bn (13.5%), Latin America with $34bn (12.4%) and Emerging Europe with $23bn (8.4%). Also, EM sovereigns issued $119bn in bonds, or 30.2% of new sovereign and corporate bonds in the covered period. The ME&A region issued $58bn, or 48.7% of total new sovereign bonds, followed by Latin America with $27bn (22.7%), Emerging Europe with $23bn (19.3%) and Asia ex-Japan with $11bn (9.2%). Further, Citi Research projected upcoming EM's sovereign external debt service payments at $23.6bn in the fourth quarter of 2018, of which $10.6bn, or 44.9% of the total, is from Latin America, $5.9bn (25%) from the ME&A region, $5bn (21.2%) from Emerging Europe and $2.1bn (8.9%) from Asia ex-Japan. It also expected upcoming EM corporate external debt service payments at $30.8bn in the fourth quarter of 2018, of which $13.5bn, or 43.8% of the total, is from Asia ex-Japan, $6.4bn (20.8%) from Emerging Europe, $6.1bn (19.8%) from Latin America and $4.8bn (15.6%) from the ME&A region.
Source: Citi Research, Byblos Research