Figures compiled by Citi Research show that emerging markets (EMs) issued $167bn in external sovereign and corporate bonds in the first quarter of 2019, down by 8.7% from $183bn in the first quarter of 2018. The debt issued in Asia excluding Japan reached $76bn or 45.5% of the total, followed by bond issuance in the Middle East & Africa (ME&A) with $42bn (25.1%), Emerging Europe with $30bn (18%), and Latin America with $20bn (12%). Further, EM corporates issued $103bn in bonds in the covered period, equivalent to 61.7% of total sovereign and corporate bond issuance. Asia ex-Japan issued $69bn, or 67% of total corporate issuance in the first quarter of 2019, followed by Latin America with $12bn (11.7%), and each of Emerging Europe and the ME&A region with $11bn (10.7% each). Also, EM sovereigns issued $64bn in bonds, or 38.3% of new sovereign and corporate bonds, in the covered period. The ME&A region issued $31bn, or 48.4% of total new sovereign bonds, followed by Emerging Europe with $19bn (29.7%), Latin America with $8bn (12.5%) and Asia ex-Japan with $7bn (10.9%). In parallel, Citi projected the upcoming EM's sovereign external debt service payments at $24.1bn between March and May 2019, of which $7.9bn or 32.8% of the total, would be from Latin America, $6.6bn (27.4%) from the ME&A region, $5.1bn (21.2%) from Emerging Europe and $4.5bn (18.7%) from Asia ex-Japan. It expected upcoming EM corporate external debt service payments at $40.4bn over the same period, of which $25.4bn, or 63% of the total, would be from Asia ex-Japan, $6.5bn (16.1%) from Emerging Europe, $4.5bn (11.1%) from Latin America, and $4bn (10%) from the ME&A region.   
Source: Citi Research, Byblos Research