More low-income individuals aren't benefitting from government support than wealthier individuals. This difference seems most severe in China and India. Low-income individuals can't benefit from such schemes if they are financially excluded. Low-inco...

EM hard currency sovereign bond issuance dropped to US$8.2bn in July, a fall of 60% compared to June, bringing total issuance YTD to US$131.7bn, based on our calculations using data from Bond Radar. For the year so far, 70% of issuance has been IG an...

There are eight updates to our tracker this week. It may now take place in the second-half of August, at the earliest, when the board returns from recess. There is nothing else on the IMF board schedule in the next week (except Gabon today). Overall,...

Following its monetary policy meeting, which left the base rate unchanged at 7%, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) revealed that restructured loans in the Kenya banking sector had hit 29% of total loans by end-June – much higher than the13% recorded in...

Spot rate down 9% from March peak (Covid-19 panic), but US$ still above 10-year averages for spot (6%) and REER (9%). Weak (or at least stable) US$ a pre-requisite for non-Technology EM-FM equities (eg Brazil, SA performance recently). Chart shows US...

While the economic effects of conflict and political instability have been analyzed extensively, much less attention has been paid to how banks are affected. Our study focuses on the potential impact of conflict and political instability on systemic...