Vietnam has further integrated into regional supply chains. It has benefited from US trade diversion away from China, and production reallocation and investment by Chinese firms. The key risk is the US changing its policy stance towards Vietnam.

Geopolitical risks have declined markedly, helping the TRY to remain stable, despite growth concerns prompting the central bank to cut interest rates by 425 bps. Large external financing needs and a worsening fiscal outlook present significant challenges going forward, while further stimulus could hurt external stability following last year’s sharp correction.

Weak growth will weigh on tax revenues, leading to sizable revenue shortfalls, while the frontloading of financial support to Eskom will cause spending overruns. Taken together, the fiscal deficit will far exceed the government’s targets. This increases the risk of a rating downgrade by Moody’s to non-investment grade status.

Central banks poised for easing as clouds gather over the global growth and earnings outlook; Policy uncertainty remains a key risk with no-deal Brexit and potential U.S. FX intervention in the spotlight ; China accelerates market opening for foreign investors in a bid to stoke growth and ease trade tensions; Leveraged loan issuance is over 50% below H118 levels; lower global rates reduce the appeal of floating-rate securities; Who holds leveraged loans? Institutional investors may have significant exposure via collateralized loan obligations (CLOs)    

Speculative positioning in the CFTC’s CoT report shows Dollar longs have scaled back sharply and are only modest at this point. Data from option markets suggest positioning may even be modestly short the Dollar versus the Euro. After many years of large Dollar longs in the foreign exchange market, we read these data as saying Dollar positioning is now essentially flat.

We estimate that Ukraine’s debt should stabilize at around 55%. The exchange rate depreciating roughly in line with inflation is key, as about two-thirds of Ukraine’s debt is issued in foreign currency. A 2014-style FX shock would bring the debt-to-GDP ratio to 100%. We are more concerned about the financing gap in 2020 than debt.

Please find our latest U.S. Regulatory Update, covering the Federal Reserve’s Semiannual Monetary Policy Report, Congressional Libra Hearings, Stress Testing and CCAR results, and Capitol Hill updates, among other topics.

Labor shortages and fragile investor confidence will constrain output growth. Policies will likely become more accommodative, thanks to a dovish ECB and Fed. The external financing and inflation outlook will remain challenging for some. Slow progress in addressing structural problems will intensify vulnerabilities.

The IIF has summarized key themes that emerged from the Facebook Libra hearings before both the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee this week in Washington.

Our EM Growth Tracker came in at 3.5% (3m/3m SAAR) in June, 0.3pp lower than the month prior. The deterioration in our tracker was mainly driven by weaker hard data (explaining more than half of the decline) but exacerbated by business surveys and financial variables.

Low rates may boost short-term growth—but will discourage deleveraging even as debt continues to pile up; Incoming EC President Ursula von der Leyen puts climate change and sustainable finance top of the policy agenda; LIBOR transition update: focus on risks for asset managers; Venezuela: estimated total debt of over 200% of GDP, with external debt accounting for 80% of total debt

Despite the shift in the Fed's stance, the Dollar has refused to fall versus the rest of the G10. One reason is that other central banks are also shifting dovish, which limits the scope for interest differentials. Another is that the importance of rate differentials as a driver of FX has fallen, such that the dovish Fed shift now carries less signal for the Dollar. The Dollar is “stuck,” a dilemma for policy makers who want a weaker currency.

Growth differentials across EM are large. Asian EMs outperformed in the long-run, mostly due to higher productivity growth. Low productivity explains low growth, in Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa.

Spurred by falling interest rates, global debt rose by a hefty $3 trillion in Q1 2019.  At over $246 trillion, global debt is now just $2 trillion shy of the all-time high of Q1 2018.  EM debt hit a record $69 trillion in Q1 2019—over 216% of GDP. 

Since the height of the Lira and Peso sell-off in August 2018, both currencies have weakened sharply in real effective terms. While both have seen their current account deficits narrow sharply, this is mostly due to cyclical weakness and not genuine rebalancing. This is why our FX fair value model signals that both the Lira and Peso are only fair and not undervalued.