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This has been an exciting year for supranational borrowers. Total issuance has been higher than ever before, with $47.4bn raised during the first nine months of the year - compared to $46bn over the same period in 1996.

Structured notes have been one of the few areas of the capital markets where the needs and desires of supranational issuers, investors and bankers have met in happy unison in recent months.

Ask five bankers which issuer will become the benchmark borrower in the European single currency market after 1999 and you will get five different answers.

THAILAND passed one crucial test with investors during the IMF/World Bank meeting in Hong Kong this week by underlining its intention to adhere to the IMF's strictures and announcing a wide-ranging financial restructuring plan to be unveiled on October 15. Thai officials told Euroweek that the government had been made fully aware that it needed to maintain confidence in the country by being open about its plans to restructure the economy.

IT PROVED to be another difficult week in the mainstream Euromarkets, as the impasse created by widening swap spreads, still high levels of inventory and a general feeling of torpor among market professionals led to another quiet week for the usually busy month of September. But total volumes for September are likely to fall only a little short of the equivalent figures last year with the majority of the business at the margins. Secondary paper is still being offered wide of the market, and investors continue for the most part to shy away from primary issues.

ROADSHOWS will begin in Hong Kong on Monday for the $3bn plus flotation of China Telecom, following this week's release of further details on the sale. The issue, the largest share offering from China, has already begun to draw a strong response, prompting concerns that it may overwhelm Hong Kong's banking system. With 22.5% of the company's share capital to be offered pre-greenshoe, the group will divest a 9.9% stake to a dozen leading conglomerates including China Everbright and China International Trust & Investment Corporation (Citic), which hold stakes in its main domestic competitor Unicom.

THE EXPORT-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) made its second foray of the year into the Deutschmark sector on Wednesday with a DM500m ($280m) three year FRN. Bankers concluded that while the deal was a success, the all-in spread of 62bp over Libor showed how far Korean spreads have widened this year. Led by ABN AMRO Hoare Govett and Merrill Lynch, the AA-/A1 rated issue was priced at 50bp over three month Libor on an issue/re-offer price of 99.65 and fees of 5bp.

SOCGEN Asia launched $100m of two year FRNs on Monday as part of the transformation of property company Hongkong China Ltd into a financial services vehicle for Lippo Ltd and its new red chip ally, China Resources. Hongkong China, which is majority owned by Lippo, will cease to originate property development business under a reorganisation plan approved at an extraordinary general meeting on September 2. Some of the company's real estate interests may be sold off.

INDICATIVE terms for a $75m convertible by Pacific Construction have been announced ahead of the deal's scheduled launch next week. Taiwanese commentators said that terms on the premium redemption deal balance the company's optimism over its future share price with investors' desire for high bond floors and defensive characteristics.

* Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank International launched ¥8.1bn of five year notes on Monday, in a novel Euromarket financing for a new Cayman Islands-registered company which intends to invest indirectly in the Chicago commodity futures markets. DKB executed a similar transaction at the end of June for Endeavor Bond Company, whose parent is also planning to invest in the Chicago futures exchanges, but the bank said that otherwise the deal is a first for the Euromarkets.

THE Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) this week completed a triumvirate of supranational deals in the Hong Kong dollar market, with its first since the Territory's handover to China at the end of June. The HK$1bn HSBC-led deal follows a similar transaction for the European Investment Bank last week and a smaller deal for the World Bank.

EAST Japan Railway's (JR East) second share issue is moving forward, but will not emerge until after JR Tokai has completed its domestic listing on October 8. Nikko Securities and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter have been appointed joint global co-ordinators by the JNR Settlement Corporation, a quasi-private organisation established by the government to handle the privatisation of the national railway system and dispose of its massive debts.