Tag: Africa bonds

Alongside the riches, Ghana’s oil boom has also ushered in a string of woes, including huge infrastructure needs and the stubborn problem of rampant public expenditure. So, at a time when investors are displaying appetite for sub-Saharan African bonds, it’s little surprise then that the country is planning to issue a Eurobond worth up to $1bn. Continue reading »

By Dambisa Moyo

In my book Dead Aid I suggested that African governments could and should access the international capital markets to finance their development objectives such as infrastructure, healthcare and education. I argued that the relatively transparent global bond markets would help impose discipline on governments that were otherwise viewed by investors as reckless and, in many cases, corrupt. Critics argued that my suggestion was naive, and that African policy makers were ill-equipped to venture into the international debt markets.

Four years later, and African governments are proving the naysayers wrong. Continue reading »

In October last year, beyondbrics wrote of a sub-Saharan debt rush – partly based on Zambia’s successful issue, and on investors’ hunt for yield and diversification.

But now there is now talk of “original sin” – excessive borrowing in non-domestic currency; yields have increased and spreads have widened. What’s going on? Chart of the week takes a look. Continue reading »

2012 was a great year for frontier-market hard-currency bonds, and Angola hopes to get in on the action in 2013. The oil producer announced on Friday plans to raise $1bn from a debut eurobond issue later this year. Continue reading »

sunset seen from near DakarRating agency Fitch is ending the year with predictions that sub-Saharan Africa will be “a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy world in 2013″. With growth expectations of above 5 per cent, the region is set to benefit from rising investor interest, and upgrades may be in order.

Among the agency’s 15 rated sub-Saharan sovereigns, nine have stable outlooks and three positive. So who are the ones to watch? Continue reading »

African sovereign debt has quadrupled in the last decade, but compared to other regions still has a long way to go. As Eleanor Whitehead of This is Africa explains to Rob Minto of beyondbrics, investor appetite for African bonds is growing – so which countries are next?

It might be a small issue, but it’s a first: Namibia has issued a $96m bond denominated in South African rand, the first such bond issued by another sovereign.

The question is – what to call it? Continue reading »

With emerging market debt markets booming, is now time for African nations to join in? If Zambia’s recent bond is anything to go by, the answer would be a firm ‘yes’ – as many analysts are fond of pointing out, Zambia’s yield on its 10-year bond is lower than that of Spain.

So what’s stopping African countries jumping in and issing international bonds? Continue reading »

Joining the club can bring a whole new bunch of friends. In the case of Nigeria, which last month was admitted by JP Morgan to its emerging market Government Bond Index with effect from October, it means a lots of new overseas investors – and borrowing costs dropping off a cliff.

But that doesn’t mean everything is rosy. Inflation is still stubbornly high, above the single-digit target, and the central bank is expected to hold interest rates on Tuesday. Continue reading »

Spain may not be Uganda, as its premier Mariano Rajoy undiplomatically exclaimed in a text to his finance minister earlier this year. According to bond investors, it is Zambia.

The Republic of Zambia this week sold its maiden 10-year dollar-denominated bond, raising $750m from international investors. Funds swamped the deal with orders of about $12bn, allowing the country to price the bond at a yield of just 5.625 per cent. Spain’s 10-year bond yield is currently 5.78 per cent. Continue reading »

BB: time to register

Dear beyondbrics readers,

After more than three years of fully open access, we are taking the step of asking our readers to register on FT.com to read our articles. Beyondbrics will still be free but we'd like to know a bit more about you, our readers. Other FT blogs (including Alphaville) already do the same thing. Registration is active on beyondbrics from May 6.

Many of you are already registered on FT.com, or are subscribers - in which case, if you are logged in to the site you will not notice any difference. Just carry on as before.

For those of you not yet registered, it's a simple process which only takes a few moments.

Reading beyondbrics articles will NOT deduct from your free monthly quota of stories on FT.com.

Many thanks

Stefan Wagstyl, emerging markets editor

Global equities macromap

beyondbrics

The emerging markets hub

About this blog Headlines email Blog guide
News and comment from more than 40 emerging economies, headed by Brazil, Russia, India and China.



'Like' our beyondbrics Facebook page, where we showcase a top story of the day
Sign up for our news headlines and markets snaphot service. We have two emails per day - London and New York headlines (sent at approx 6am and 12pm GMT).

Pretty much everything you need to know about beyondbrics is in our About this site page. But briefly:

To comment, please register for free with FT.com and read our policy on submitting comments.

There is an overall beyondbrics RSS feed, as well as feeds for all our countries, tags and authors. Learn more in our full RSS guide.

All posts are published in UK time.

Get in touch with us - your comments, advice and even complaints. Find out how to contact the team.

See the full list of FT blogs.

BB shortcuts

Regulars Series Archive
Chart of the week
Behind the numbers

Corporate watch
A regular in-depth look at a significant emerging market-based company

The Weekender
Catch up with the week in emerging markets
Hello 2013
Guest posts on the outlook for the year ahead

2012 review
Quiz, charts, most read and more

BB review
An occasional series reviewing books and arts from around the beyondbrics world

Brics at 10
A decade of growth
12 for 2012
Guest writer predictions
2011 review
The year in numbers
The Diaspora Digest
EM diasporas, seen through their community media (Oct-Nov 2011)
Sick brics (Sep 2011)
Brics and mortar (Aug 2011)
Beyondbrics on the beach (Jul-Aug 2011)
China bubble? (June 2011)
Post-election Nigeria (June 2011)
Hey bric spender (Aug 2010)

Emerging markets data

Archive

« AprMay 2013
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031