Business

Worries over emerging markets rise

Worries over emerging markets rise

By REUTERS

LONDON: Concerns over the world’s major emerging economies, and in particular China, are growing as financial investors reassess the outlook for global growth, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) said today. After a month of turmoil for stocks and commodities, the quarterly update from the Switzerland-based forum for major central banks avoided making predictions about whether the turbulence was likely to deepen. Introducing the report in a briefing for journalists, Claudio Borio, head of the BIS’ monetary and economic department, said that the falls in China’s stock market should be seen as part of a broader response to increasingly stark financial imbalances. “We are not seeing isolated tremors, but the release of pressure that has gradually accumulated over the years along major fault lines,” he said. The report pointed to risks stemming from the build-up of trillions in dollar-denominated debt in the corporate sector across the developing world and to related booms in asset prices. The BIS also laid out data which showed Chinese banks saw net capital outflows of $109 billion in the first quarter of 2015.