Asia Pacific

LatAm delegates who struggled with the 40-hour journey to get the IADB meetings in Busan are likely to return with harsh lessons on trade tariffs rather than a recipe to replicate South Korea’s economic miracle.

Chinese officials in Beijing are growing increasingly unhappy with the government’s policy of offering cheap loans without conditions to troubled Latin American states that might never be able to repay them.

Slowing growth, inflation, and an increasingly fractious relationship with the United States are making China “increasingly wary” of investing in Argentina, analysts have told Emerging Markets.

Bilateral trade deals with Latin America have mushroomed in recent years but there is a growing desire to join two regional trade agreements that could link the continent into the economic powerhouses of South East Asia

The slowdown in economic growth in China is starting to have real impacts on commodity-rich Latin America as weakening demand for construction crimps demand for raw materials

Policymakers in Latin America have been braced for tighter US monetary policy for a couple of years, which has allowed them to cope with the impact of higher borrowing costs. One fly in the ointment for corporate borrowers could be a rise in the dollar against EM currencies.

Emerging Markets can reveal that North Korea was rebuffed by Beijing in its attempt to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank because it was unable to hand over a proper snapshot of the hermit state’s economy and finances

China, keen to see its influence grow in Latin America, will be hoping that Argentina turns out to be a better bet than Venezuela

China has released new rules expanding its municipal bond programme and providing a debt swap quota for local governments. Observers welcome the new measures which they hope will encourage transparency over debt levels and provide local authorities with more funding flexibility.

In this round-up, three new free trade zones receive Politburo approval for an end of March launch and ICBC and Bank of China report huge rise in cross-border RMB clearing business.

Zhongrong International Trust is set to start is non deal roadshow next week with a series of investor meetings in Asia and Europe, a banker close to the deal told GlobalRMB.

China Construction Bank (CCB) and Commerzbank have launched the first Ucits-compliant ETF fund under China’s RQFII scheme. The fund, which was announced on March 25, will invest in China’s money market.