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Bond markets were subdued this week, with market participants awaiting the results of the US FOMC, Bank of England and European Central Bank meetings. No changes to interest rates were announced, but both the Fed and the ECB announced a move towards a tightening bias. ECB president Wim Duisenberg said that he would need more evidence of a pick up in European inflationary pressures before tightening monetary policy. His comments, coming after a week of higher than expected European price and output figures, suggest that the market's bearish trend ahead of these data was overdone.

Belgium Market talk suggests that Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Salomon Smith Barney have won the competition to provide the senior debt backing the LBO of Plate Glass and Shatterprufe Industries from South African Breweries.

The Republic of Argentina fought off a Moody's downgrade and returned to the dollar bond markets this week for the first time since April with a groundbreaking $1.5bn investment grade issue. The bond carried a World Bank guarantee that cut the country's headline borrowing costs by almost a third. The deal, led by JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, was broken into six zero-coupon tranches of $250m each from one to five years, all of which were priced at the tight end of revised spread guidance.

n Inter-American Development Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

The Republic of Argentina fought off a Moody's downgrade and returned to the dollar bond markets this week for the first time since April with a groundbreaking $1.5bn investment grade issue. The bond carried a World Bank guarantee that cut the country's headline borrowing costs by almost a third. The deal, led by JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, was broken into six zero-coupon tranches of $250m each from one to five years, all of which were priced at the tight end of revised spread guidance.

South Africa The $300m syndicated credit for CEF Mossgas was signed this week by lead arrangers ABN Amro and Deutsche Bank and co-arrangers Bayerische Landesbank and Paribas.

Rating: Aa1/AAA Amount: Eu500m (fungible with five issues totalling Eu1.75bn launched 21/10/98, 05/01/99, 21/01/99, 11/02/99 and 13/07/99) Öffentlicher Pfandbrief series 495

Corporate new issue activity in Spain is gathering pace this autumn, with the offerings of shares in travel booking group Amadeus Global Travel Distribution and construction company OHL heading a rare flurry of deals. The Amadeus flotation, which was launched last week by sole bookrunner Warburg Dillon Read and joint global co-ordinator Merrill Lynch at a price range of Eu4.75-Eu6, is attracting strong demand - prompting one banker outside the syndicate to describe the deal as "flying".

China PricewaterhouseCoopers has completed due diligence of debt-ridden Red Chip company Yue Xiu Enterprises (Holdings).

Europe n Residential Mortgage Securities 7 Plc

Australia Financial close for a A$52m project financing for Jubilee Gold Mines was achieved last week. Arrangers are BankWest, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and NM Rothschild & Sons.

n Westpac Banking Corp Rating: Aa3/AA-