Small is beautiful: Belgium makes most of economic recovery

This year the Belgian Debt Agency printed a pair of benchmarks that heralded a return to the pre-crisis era of debt financing. One was a 10 year, which attracted the largest book Belgium had seen on such a deal since 2008. The Belgian economic recovery accelerated last year and is outpacing many countries in the eurozone. But challenges remain. No stranger to political instability, Belgium will enter national and regional elections in late May and the next administration has plenty of work to do to shore up the economic recovery, as well as address long term problems such as Belgium’s ageing population and a high level of debt to GDP. GlobalCapital gathered key banks and investors to a roundtable with the Belgian Debt Agency at its offices in Brussels to discuss the main issues facing the market for Belgian debt in 2014 and beyond.