published May 16, 2018, 6:00:01 PM, by Srinivasan Sivabalan
(Bloomberg) —

Investors are punishing markets where policy makers haven’t done enough to stem deteriorating current-account balances, ballooning inflation and a run on their currencies.

They became unforgiving as rising Treasury yields and a stronger dollar put the case for riskier investments in the balance. Money is no longer cheap or plentiful, and low-quality investments burdened by policy baggage are being weeded out.

That’s sent a gauge of emerging-market currencies toward its worst week since Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election. Politicians and central bankers from Turkey to Argentina and Indonesia are now attempting to save their exchange rates from the bearish onslaught. Expect more frequent interventions and “emergency meetings.”

Lack of Urgency

For more than two years, developing nations had it easy as yield-chasing investors poured billions into them, sometimes ignoring weak external finances and monetary-policy complacency. Central bankers came under pressure from politicians who wanted to keep interest rates low and sustain high deficits to please voters. They had little sense of urgency to fix their economies because capital flows remained buoyant and markets always rebounded from mini selloffs.

Since the start of 2016, bond investors have put in $1.5 trillion into new debt issues by emerging-market governments and corporates. Stocks added $8 trillion in market capitalization between January 2016 and January 2018. An emerging-market exchange-traded fund has gone almost six years without a single day of outflows.

But after Treasury yields crossed the 3 percent mark in late April, something snapped in the relationship between emerging markets and global investors.

Lira’s Woes

Take Turkey.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, facing re-election next month, has become increasingly vocal about what he sees as a foreign conspiracy to undermine the lira and the Turkish economy.

This week, things came to a head. Even as Turkey’s currency fell to new lows against the dollar, Erdogan went to London to tell investors he intends to step up his role in swaying monetary policy if he wins the polls. Investors reacted by speeding up the lira’s selloff to a point where the central bank had to step in and say it will do what’s necessary to protect the currency.

World-Beating Rates

Argentina was forced to spend 10 percent of its foreign-exchange reserves on Tuesday to stanch a depreciation that had taken the peso to an 18 percent slump this month. While the intervention halted the plunge, the question remains whether the central bank has managed to restore its credibility.

A mistimed relaxation of the inflation target back in December set in motion what turned into a 23 percent tumble in the currency this year that forced authorities to hike interest rates to a world-beating 40 percent and turn for help to the International Monetary Fund.

Trade Shortfall

In Indonesia, the rupiah fell to the weakest level since October 2015 before Thursday’s interest-rate meeting. Foreign investors are net sellers of about $2.9 billion of Indonesian stocks this year, turning the nation’s equities into the worst performer in Asia. Net outflows from rupiah bonds have totaled $2.3 billion since the end of March, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The selloff also spread to dollar bonds from Indonesian issuers after the nation posted the biggest trade deficit in four years on Tuesday, fueling speculation the local currency will weaken further and push up servicing costs on international debt.

To contact the reporter on this story: Srinivasan Sivabalan in London at ssivabalan@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dana El Baltaji at delbaltaji@bloomberg.net Robert Brand
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