Global Investing

Happy birthday EMBI! The index group, the main benchmark for emerging market bond investors, turns 20 this year.  When officially launched on Dec 31 1993, the world was a different place. The Mexican, Asian and Russian financial crises were still ahead, as was Argentina’s $100 billion debt default. The euro zone didn’t exist, let alone its debt crisis. Emerging debt was something only the most reckless investors dabbled in.

To mark the upcoming anniversary, JPMorgan – the owner of the indices – has published some interesting data that shows how the asset class has been transformed in the past two decades.  In 1993:
- The emerging debt universe was worth just $422 billion, the EMBI Global had 14 sovereign bonds in it with a market capitalisation of $112 billion.
- The average credit rating on the index was BB.
- Public debt-to-GDP was almost 100 percent back then for emerging markets, compared to 69 percent for developed markets.
- Forex reserves for EMBI countries stood at $116 billion
- Per capita annual GDP for index countries was less than $3000.
Now fast forward 20 years:
- The emerging debt universe is close to $10 trillion, there are 55 countries in the EMBIG index and the market capitalisation of the three main JPM indices has swollen to $2.7 trillion.
- The EMBIG has an average Baa3 credit rating (investment grade) with 62 percent of its market cap investment-grade rated.
- Public debt is now 34 percent of GDP on average in emerging markets, while developed world debt ratios have ballooned to 119 percent of GDP.
- Forex reserves for EMBIG members stand at $6.1 trillion
- Per capita annual income has risen 2.5 times to $7,373.

What next? The thinking at JPM seems to be that the day is not far off when a country “graduates” from the EMBI and joins the developed world.  To be excluded from the EMBI group of indices, a country’s gross national income must exceed the bank’s “index income ceiling” (calculated using World Bank methodology) for three years in a row or have a sovereign credit rating of A3/A- for three consecutive years.

Hungary’s outlook upgrade to stable from positive by Fitch was greeted with incredulity by many analysts. Benoit Anne at Societe Generale wonders if the decision had anything to do with the Mayan prophecy that proclaiming the end of the world on Dec. 21:

What is the last crazy thing you would do on the last day of the world? Well, the guys at Fitch could not find anything better to do than upgrading Hungary’s rating outlook to stable. Now, that really makes me scared.

A bit brutal maybe but the point Anne wants to make is valid — nothing fundamental has changed in Hungary — its GDP growth and debt numbers are looking as dire as before and the central bank is still subject to political interference.

No sign at a Fitch Ratings briefing today that things will get much better this year for emerging market debt. The 100 or so mainly industry attendees were asked to give their thoughts using a machine not unlike the “Ask the Audience” gadget seen on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”.

Only 10 percent said credit quality would improve over the next 12 months. By far the largest vote — 59 percent — was for credit quality to “deteriorate” somewhat.

 As for a wholesale crisis on emerging markets, the attendees were fairly sceptical. Only 12 percent thought there was a more than 50 percent chance of such event. Half the respondents said the odds were between 20 and 49 percent. SOme 38 percent said it was less than that.