22-Feb-18, Bloomberg
The spectre of volatile financial markets is prompting investors to be more selective in emerging markets and Asia is stacking up to be among the most resilient when it comes to economic measures.
Among 22 developing economies, Taiwan and Thailand come out on top in terms of current-account balances, while Brazil and Hungary are projected to have the largest debt pile, data compiled by Moody’s Investors Service show.
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Turkey will have the widest current-account deficit in 2018 at 4.5 percent of GDP, followed by Argentina and Colombia. By contrast, Taiwan, Thailand and South Korea will have the biggest surpluses.
Sovereigns that run sizable current-account deficits, or whose debt servicing obligations are higher than their foreign-exchange reserves - such as Chile, Argentina, Malaysia, Hungary, Romania and Turkey - would be most impacted by external shocks.