This edition shows tightened financial conditions, analyzes the impact of the Middle East conflict on equity markets, the compression of bond yield spreads between developing Asia and the Pacific versus advanced economies, and how fiscal imbalances can complicate monetary policy.
Despite heightened global uncertainty, local currency bond markets in emerging East Asia expanded by 2.4% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) at the end of March to USD31.5 trillion, supported by higher government bond issuance. The sustainable bond market of ASEAN+3 reached USD1.02 trillion, which equates to a marginal contraction of 0.1% q-o-q due to reduced issuance during the quarter. Nonetheless, ASEAN+3 remained the second largest sustainable bond market in the world, representing 18.0% of the global total.