World Bank

The World Bank's treasury team has had a busy week, raising almost $15bn in three days, including the largest ever SSA dollar benchmark on Wednesday.

World Bank made the most of the recovery in market conditions to print the largest ever SSA dollar benchmark on Wednesday, raising $8bn.

The World Bank made a swift return to the market on Tuesday as it prepares to sell a five year global sustainable development bond after updating investors on its plans to tackle the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bondholders appear to be sleepwalking over the precipice of a debt standstill chasm as the fissure of the emerging markets funding crisis yawns wider by the day. The IMF and World Bank have called for a suspension of debt payments to official and private creditors but there is scant evidence that the latter are alive to that possibility becoming a reality. Ross Lancaster, Phil Thornton and Oliver West report.

Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, is the latest emerging market to approach international financing institutions for help to deal with Covid-19.

More than 100 charities and other organisations are urging that developing countries' debt payments be cancelled this year. They have called for interest and principal payments to be withheld from public and private sector lenders.

Debt relief, restructuring and trillions of dollars of official institution funding are all speeding down the tracks towards emerging markets, as the number of countries with desperate financing needs across the world rapidly stacks up. Ross Lancaster, Burhan Khadbai, Mariam Meskin, Phil Thornton and Oliver West report.

The most vulnerable emerging market sovereigns won a lifeline on Wednesday as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund called for relief on their debt burdens.

The pace of emerging markets borrowers’ requests for official institution funding, amid the shocking deterioration of their bond markets, is picking up pace. On Sunday, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky said that he had discussed using International Monetary Fund resources to fight the economic impact of Covid-19.

The World Bank has increased its funding allowance for its 2019-20 fiscal year by $5bn. It now plans to raise between $55bn and $65bn, up from its previous $55bn-$60bn target, according to a funding official at the supranational.

This week’s funding scorecard looks at the progress supranationals have made in their funding programmes during a first quarter wracked by volatility.

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