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Indonesia Funds Seek Exit as Malaysia Lures Buyers

Indonesia Funds Seek Exit as Malaysia Lures Buyers

When it comes to what kind of central-bank policy is best for luring foreign investors to Asia during the Covid-19 pandemic, orthodoxy is winning hands down.

Take the respective fates of Indonesia and Malaysia.

The proportion of Indonesia’s debt held by foreigners has dropped to 27% from 39% at the end of last year, while in Malaysia it increased to 24% from a low of 21.7% in April. The difference has narrowed to just 3 percentage points from as much as 14 percentage points at end-2019. It’s the same story for fund flows. Indonesia has had net foreign outflows of $6.8 billion this year, while Malaysia has recorded inflows of $1.3 billion.

Indonesia Funds Seek Exit as Malaysia Lures Buyers

One of the factors deterring flows into Indonesia has been the central bank’s debt-monetization program, in which it buys bonds directly from the government. Money managers are concerned the plan will become entrenched, despite repeated assurances to the contrary from the central bank governor and finance minister. Malaysia’s central bank has stuck closely to orthodox measures in its efforts to combat the coronavirus: cutting rates and lowering the statutory requirement ratio.

Rear more: Malaysia Yield Gap Widens to 2017 High on Rate-Cut Bets: Chart

Another factor luring global funds to Malaysia instead of Indonesia has been Bank Negara’s more aggressive rate action. Malaysian policy makers have trimmed their benchmark by a combined 125 basis points this year, whereas Indonesia’s has only cut by 100 basis points, even though its higher nominal rate means it has relatively more headroom.

Vanishing Volatility

One important consequence of the changing fund-flow pattern has been to sap volatility in Indonesia’s bond market.

A rolling 30-day measure of the standard deviation of Indonesian yields peaked at more than 0.6 in March, while in Malaysia the same gauge stood at 0.3. That gauge of volatility in Indonesia has since tumbled to as low as 0.03, dropping below that for Malaysia.

Indonesia Funds Seek Exit as Malaysia Lures Buyers

While much of the slide in volatility is due to the withdrawal of foreign funds, another factor is the increasing presence of Bank Indonesia.

Central bank ownership of Indonesia’s sovereign bonds has increased to about 20% as of Oct. 12 from less than 10% at the start of the year, according to Jennifer Kusuma, a senior rates strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Singapore. In contrast, Bank Negara Malaysia owned 2.6% of the market at the end of September, versus 0.5% at the beginning 2020, she said.

While foreigners have cut holdings of Indonesia’s debt, the tumble in volatility looks to offer some incentive for potential investors. If volatility remains at current levels, then buyers have the opportunity to get some of the highest real yields in the region at potentially lower risk.

What to Watch

  • The Philippines will release balance-of-payments figure on Monday, and sell five-year bonds the following day
  • Indonesia will hold a conventional bond auction on Tuesday
  • Malaysia will announce inflation data for September on Wednesday
  • Thailand will auction 10 billion baht ($320 million) of benchmark 2029 bonds (LB29DA) on Wednesday. The previous sale of the same security in September drew a bid-to-cover ratio of 4 times. The nation will publish customs trade data on Thursday

Note: Marcus Wong is an EM macro strategist who writes for Bloomberg. The observations he makes are his own and not intended as investment advice.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.