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The $1 Trillion Debt Boom That's Making Emerging Markets Safer

Developing-nation borrowers are raising more money in local markets than ever before.

The $1 Trillion Debt Boom That's Making Emerging Markets Safer
Left to right, the share prices are displayed on an illuminated rotating cube in the atrium of the London Stock Exchange Group Plc’s offices in London, U.K. (Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Developing-nation borrowers are raising more money in local markets than ever before, making them less vulnerable to moves in U.S. Treasury yields, according to Mirabaud Asset Management Ltd.

Local-currency bond sales in emerging markets this year exceeded $1 trillion, almost triple the amount raised in the same period last year and dwarfing the $160 billion in hard-currency issues, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Domestic sales have increased almost five-fold in the past five years.

The $1 Trillion Debt Boom That's Making Emerging Markets Safer

“The dependency on external borrowing in emerging markets has collapsed,” said Daniel Moreno, the London-based head of global emerging-market debt at Mirabaud. “The government and corporate sectors are less vulnerable to external shocks because they now finance themselves for the most part in their own currencies.”

Sales in the Chinese renminbi accounted for more than half of local-currency bond sales, the data shows.

To contact the reporter on this story: Selcuk Gokoluk in London at sgokoluk@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dana El Baltaji at delbaltaji@bloomberg.net, Robert Brand, Srinivasan Sivabalan

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