Capital Flows to Latin America and the Caribbean: First Quarter 2020 in Times of COVID-19

Highlights • In the first quarter of 2020, the spread of the coronavirus, together with a precipitous decline in commodity prices, radically changed the financial landscape for Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) issuers. After a record breaking issuance of US$ 38 billion worth of bonds in Januar...

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Otros Autores: NU. CEPAL. Oficina de Washington
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Lenguaje:English
Publicado: ECLAC 2020
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Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11362/45556
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spelling oai-11362-455562020-05-27T17:32:22Z Capital Flows to Latin America and the Caribbean: First Quarter 2020 in Times of COVID-19 NU. CEPAL. Oficina de Washington COVID-19 VIRUS EPIDEMIAS MERCADOS DE CAPITAL MOVIMIENTOS DE CAPITAL BONOS GESTION DE LA DEUDA CREDITO INDICADORES ECONOMICOS COVID-19 VIRUSES EPIDEMICS CAPITAL MARKETS CAPITAL MOVEMENTS BONDS DEBT MANAGEMENT CREDIT ECONOMIC INDICATORS Highlights • In the first quarter of 2020, the spread of the coronavirus, together with a precipitous decline in commodity prices, radically changed the financial landscape for Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) issuers. After a record breaking issuance of US$ 38 billion worth of bonds in January, bond issuance dried-up in February and March, bringing total quarterly issuance to US$ 45 billion. • On March 26, however, Panama successfully placed a sovereign bond in cross-border markets to secure additional resources to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. It was followed in April by other four sovereigns from the region – Peru, Guatemala, Mexico and Paraguay – all tapping international debt markets with sizeable issuances for coronavirus funding. There was strong demand for the bonds. Together, these five sovereign issuances amounted to US$ 13 billion in new cross-border bonds. • There were five international green bond issuances in the first quarter (all in January), two new and three re-openings, and a social bond placed by Ecuador, which became the first sovereign issuer to sell social bonds in the international market. In April, Guatemala issued US$ 500 million in social bonds to finance eligible social investments directly and indirectly related to COVID-19 prevention, containment and mitigation efforts. • The shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and plunge in commodity prices were amplified by greater risk aversion, with volatility reaching a historic peak in mid-March. LAC spreads widened 357 basis points in the first quarter as a result, and were at 703 basis points at the end of March, close to the peak reached in November 2008 during the global financial crisis (765 basis points). Equities and currencies in the region also weakened significantly amid the coronavirus outbreak. The MSCI Latin American index was down 46% by the end of March. • There were nine more negative credit rating actions than positive in the region in the first quarter. In April alone, there were fourteen negative actions, eleven of them downgrades. All of the negative actions in April mentioned the impact of the coronavirus outbreak and of plummeting commodity prices. The commodity-exporters of the region, particularly oil-exporters, were the hardest hit by the downgrades. 2020-05-21T14:01:47Z 2020-05-21T14:01:47Z 2020-05-21 Texto Documento Completo http://hdl.handle.net/11362/45556 LC/WAS/TS.2020/4 en .pdf application/pdf AMERICA LATINA Y EL CARIBE LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN ECLAC
institution Cepal
collection Cepal
language English
topic COVID-19
VIRUS
EPIDEMIAS
MERCADOS DE CAPITAL
MOVIMIENTOS DE CAPITAL
BONOS
GESTION DE LA DEUDA
CREDITO
INDICADORES ECONOMICOS
COVID-19
VIRUSES
EPIDEMICS
CAPITAL MARKETS
CAPITAL MOVEMENTS
BONDS
DEBT MANAGEMENT
CREDIT
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
spellingShingle COVID-19
VIRUS
EPIDEMIAS
MERCADOS DE CAPITAL
MOVIMIENTOS DE CAPITAL
BONOS
GESTION DE LA DEUDA
CREDITO
INDICADORES ECONOMICOS
COVID-19
VIRUSES
EPIDEMICS
CAPITAL MARKETS
CAPITAL MOVEMENTS
BONDS
DEBT MANAGEMENT
CREDIT
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Capital Flows to Latin America and the Caribbean: First Quarter 2020 in Times of COVID-19
description Highlights • In the first quarter of 2020, the spread of the coronavirus, together with a precipitous decline in commodity prices, radically changed the financial landscape for Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) issuers. After a record breaking issuance of US$ 38 billion worth of bonds in January, bond issuance dried-up in February and March, bringing total quarterly issuance to US$ 45 billion. • On March 26, however, Panama successfully placed a sovereign bond in cross-border markets to secure additional resources to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. It was followed in April by other four sovereigns from the region – Peru, Guatemala, Mexico and Paraguay – all tapping international debt markets with sizeable issuances for coronavirus funding. There was strong demand for the bonds. Together, these five sovereign issuances amounted to US$ 13 billion in new cross-border bonds. • There were five international green bond issuances in the first quarter (all in January), two new and three re-openings, and a social bond placed by Ecuador, which became the first sovereign issuer to sell social bonds in the international market. In April, Guatemala issued US$ 500 million in social bonds to finance eligible social investments directly and indirectly related to COVID-19 prevention, containment and mitigation efforts. • The shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and plunge in commodity prices were amplified by greater risk aversion, with volatility reaching a historic peak in mid-March. LAC spreads widened 357 basis points in the first quarter as a result, and were at 703 basis points at the end of March, close to the peak reached in November 2008 during the global financial crisis (765 basis points). Equities and currencies in the region also weakened significantly amid the coronavirus outbreak. The MSCI Latin American index was down 46% by the end of March. • There were nine more negative credit rating actions than positive in the region in the first quarter. In April alone, there were fourteen negative actions, eleven of them downgrades. All of the negative actions in April mentioned the impact of the coronavirus outbreak and of plummeting commodity prices. The commodity-exporters of the region, particularly oil-exporters, were the hardest hit by the downgrades.
author2 NU. CEPAL. Oficina de Washington
author_facet NU. CEPAL. Oficina de Washington
format Texto
title Capital Flows to Latin America and the Caribbean: First Quarter 2020 in Times of COVID-19
title_short Capital Flows to Latin America and the Caribbean: First Quarter 2020 in Times of COVID-19
title_full Capital Flows to Latin America and the Caribbean: First Quarter 2020 in Times of COVID-19
title_fullStr Capital Flows to Latin America and the Caribbean: First Quarter 2020 in Times of COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed Capital Flows to Latin America and the Caribbean: First Quarter 2020 in Times of COVID-19
title_sort capital flows to latin america and the caribbean: first quarter 2020 in times of covid-19
publisher ECLAC
publishDate 2020
url http://hdl.handle.net/11362/45556
_version_ 1718442400948420608