News Brief

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) today is launching regular publication on its website (http://www.imf.org) of Emerging Market Financing: Quarterly Report on Developments and Prospects.

The Emerging Market Financing report is an element of the IMF's surveillance of developments in international capital markets. The report draws, in part, on a series of regular informal discussions with a broad set of private financial market participants.

The quarterly reports will regularly provide an analysis of developments in emerging bond, equity and syndicated loan markets, and the IMF staff's appraisal of key developments and the outlook and risks for emerging market fundraising on international capital markets. The reports will be published approximately four weeks after the end of each quarter.

The initial quarterly report shows that emerging bond and equity markets were hostage to volatile conditions on international capital markets during the second quarter of 2000, with the adverse external environment dominating positive country fundamentals. Syndicated loan financing by contrast remained resilient in the period, continuing to recover from the lows of the Asian crisis. Overall financing flows are expected to moderate in coming quarters, with a decisive decoupling of emerging markets from developed country markets unlikely until uncertainty about a soft versus a hard landing for the U.S. economy is resolved.