Yahoo Finance Ecuador Bonds Gain Most in EM as New IMF Deal Nears
(Bloomberg) -- Ecuador’s dollar bonds jumped, leading gains among developing nations on signs a new financing deal with the International Monetary Fund is imminent.
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Notes due in 2040 rose as much as 2.7 cents to 50.6 cents on the dollar on Wednesday, the highest since June 2022, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Debt due in 2035 was up 2.2 cents on the dollar to 54.3 cents, the highest since January 2023.
“We’re in very advanced talks with the Fund and hope to make a positive announcement of having reached a staff-level agreement” in the near term, Finance Minister Juan Carlos Vega said on the sidelines of an event organized by JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Washington, D.C.
The South American nation has raised value-added taxes and pledged to slash spending in an effort unlock multilateral lending as it grapples with dual security and fiscal crises.
The fiscal restraint and expectations of IMF financing — President Daniel Noboa told investors in New York in early March that a deal was expected in about two months — have boosted the country’s debt.
“We’re going to be able to announce good news as soon as next week,” Noboa said in the beach town of Atacames on Wednesday. “These months have been difficult for the central government” and the new “international financing” will provide cash relief, he added.
Read More: Ecuador Bonds Soar After Noboa Tells Investors IMF Deal Is Near
Ecuadorian bonds have handed investors returns of nearly 56% this year, by far the best among emerging-market sovereign peers, according to a Bloomberg index. The extra yield investors demand to hold the debt over US Treasuries has slid more than 840 basis points this year to about 12 percentage points, according to data from JPMorgan.
--With assistance from Maria Elena Vizcaino and Zijia Song.
(Updates with Noboa comments in sixth paragraph; previous versions of this story corrected the day of the week in the second paragraph and move in JPM spread in last)
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