Vietnam among emerging East Asian bond markets with steady growth: ADB

The latest issue of the ADB’s Asia Bond Monitor released on November 20 showed that at the end of September, Vietnam had US$55.1 billion in paper outstanding, 3.4% higher on-quarter and 1.9% bigger on-year in local currency terms.

This expansion was due mainly to a 4% on-quarter growth in government bonds to US$51 billion as the State Bank of Vietnam increased issuance of central bank bills.

The overall expansion of the country’s local currency bond market was slightly tempered by a 2.8% contraction on-quarter in the corporate bond market to US$5 billion. The corporate bond market still posted growth of 4.2% year-on-year.

The report also revealed that emerging East Asia’s local currency bond market posted steady growth during the third quarter of this year, despite persistent trade uncertainties and a global economic downturn.

Local currency bonds outstanding in emerging East Asia, which comprises of China, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, reached US$15.2 trillion at the end of September.

This was 3.1% higher than at the end of June. Local currency government bonds outstanding totalled at US$9.4 trillion, accounting for 61.8% of the total, while the stock of corporate bonds was US$5.8 trillion. A total of US$1.5 trillion in local currency bonds were issued in the third quarter, up 0.9% versus the previous three months.