Venezuelan migrants are 3.6% of Colombia's population; President Duque is now legalising the undocumented portion. Problem is tougher for Chile (2%) and Peru (3%): legalisation curtails the undocumented economy but is politically risky. Other EMs wit...

Most would agree that economic stress, and specifically unemployment, breeds populism, and in extreme cases, radicalisation and insecurity. It is the EM echo of the message from Bill Clinton's 1992 election strategist James Carville, "It's the econom...

There are a number of elections of importance in smaller emerging and frontier markets in 2021. The general election, delayed by a year, on the pretext of Covid-19, is likely to occur in a highly sensitive political environment, as a result of the on...

EM hard currency sovereign bond issuance jumped to US$26.2bn in November, more than twice the level in October, and the highest monthly volume since the market reopened in April. That is, the average run rate over the last four months has essentially...

During the Covid-19 pandemic, several governments across Latin America mobilised available security forces – including police reserves, the military and the navy – to assist in responding to the pandemic. Security personnel are regularly arrested for...

New President Sagasti hails from the centrist Purple Party (7% of Congress) and has worked in academia, World Bank, UN. His centrist and technocratic credentials are a salve (eg 1.8% upward move in FX rate) but he is merely a stop-gap. Elections in A...