After a decade of unconventional monetary policy in the United States, the Federal Reserve appears determined to accelerate its pace of interest-rate normalisation. Are Asian economies and corporations ready to thrive without the help of ultra-low rates?
Neeraj Seth, Managing Director, Head of Asian Credit, BlackRock; and Stephen Chang, Managing Director, Head of Asian Fixed Income, JP Morgan; shared their outlook on this dynamic asset class and provide actionable advice for fixed-income investors.
The panel moderator, Wing Chan, Morningstar’s director of manager research for Asia wrapped up the discussion in the following video.
Wing Chan: In this year’s Morningstar Institutional Conference Asia, our fixed income panelist, Stephen Chang of JP Morgan, and Neeraj Seth from Blackrock shared their insights in this important asset class.
The panel discussion begins with our panelists sharing their divergent views on the US rate hike cycle and how it might affect the Asia fixed income market. They also shared whether there were opportunities, including, in Indonesia, currency debt on the back of the credit rating upgrade. And also in India, where our panelists are seeing structural reforms, leading to opportunities within the credit space.
The panelists also had a great discussion around China, an increasingly important part of the Asian fixed income market, making up around 50% of the JP Morgan Asia Credit Index. Despite the first credit rating downgrade in 28 years by Moody’s in late May, our panelists continue to see opportunities, particularly within the primary insurance space which has been dominated by China insurance this year.
Watch other recap videos here.
