For emerging market debt investors, there seemed to be little to worry about. The previous 12 months had given them scant reason to think that conditions were about to turn for the worse. Returns on fixed-income assets from across eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa were high. Demand was so strong that several new borrowers, who would not have had a look in even a few years ago, were able to access the international markets, the results often being spectacular.
Zambia, a B rated southern African country with a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of less than $2000, garnered a huge $12bn of orders when it issued a debut Eurobond of $750m in September 2012.