Entries for 'EM Vulnerability'

Markets have been anxious about the global growth outlook for some time, with weak manufacturing data interacting with trade tensions to dim sentiment. Amid the gloom, we detect early signs that manufacturing may have troughed, and that adverse spillover to investment, important for future growth, is limited. Combining this growth picture with material easing from key central banks, paints a relatively constructive backdrop for risk assets, including EM FX.

There is growing concern over disruption to global supply chains, given the now multiple rounds of tariffs in the US-China trade dispute. Despite all this, China’s current account and trade surplus look robust. This resilience is partly driven by a shift in the composition of exports away from the US and towards destinations like ASEAN and the Euro zone.

Mounting trade tensions are putting depreciation pressure on the RMB. We investigate contagion risk to the rest of EM from further RMB weakening. During the surprise RMB devaluation in august 2015, commodity currencies like the Russian Ruble and Colombian Peso were hit most, as markets traded weaker global growth and thus falling commodity prices. We see this as a good template for possible contagion effects now.

US tariffs should be imposing a strain on China’s balance of payments, most obviously in the current account. But the surplus is rising, in part due to quite healthy exports. Instead, trade tensions may be manifesting in capital outflows, which are above 2012 levels and half 2015/6 levels. Tariffs may be raising RMB depreciation expectations, an issue of great importance to China’s policy makers and the rest of EM.