Frontier sovereign debt worries in the spotlight

Frontier market dollar debt markets have been rattled in recent months. Part of this is due to the fall in oil prices, which helps to explain the widening of spreads in Venezuela and Nigeria. But that’s not the whole story. Investors seem to be increasingly concerned about growing debt problems - something we have warned about over the course of this year. Some countries have IMF deals in place to mitigate the risk of default, but we are more worried about Ukraine and Lebanon.