Emerging market bonds are suffering their worst losses in almost three decades, hit by rising global interest rates, slowing growth and the war in Ukraine.
The benchmark index of dollar-denominated EM sovereign bonds, the JPMorgan EMBI Global Diversified, has delivered total returns of around minus 15 per cent so far in 2022, its worst start to the year since 1994. The decline has only been slightly eased by the broad rally across global markets in recent days, which ended a seven-week losing streak for Wall Street stocks.
Nearly $36bn has flowed out of emerging market mutual and exchange traded bond funds since the start of the year, according to data from EPFR; equity market flows have also gone into reverse since the start of this month.
“It’s certainly the worst start I can remember across the asset class and I’ve been doing EMs for more than 25 years,” said Brett Diment, head of global emerging market debt at…
