Economy

Brazilian policymakers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. There is no combination of fiscal and monetary policies that can assure decent growth, on-target inflation, a stable exchange rate, and public debt sustainability. We recommend investors maintain an underweight allocation to Brazilian fixed-income markets versus their EM peers and continue shorting BRL versus MXN. We have been bearish on the Bovespa in absolute terms and are now downgrading Brazilian stocks from neutral to underweight within an EM equity portfolio.

The South African government seems to believe that some fiscal retrenchment can stabilize the public debt-to-GDP ratio. But that’s a misconception. The country will need draconian spending cuts to achieve this.

Data released this Monday suggests that while China’s housing market is no longer worsening, the secular adjustment remains ongoing. Although aggregate housing demand may be stabilizing at a low level, supply will continue to significantly outpace demand, indicating that home price deflation will persist. Additionally, property developers’ poor financing will hinder new project initiations, leading to a further decline in housing starts over the next six to 12 months.