The risk profiles of Emerging Market (EM) investment grade (IG) vs their developed market (DM) peers are converging. In fact, amidst spending/borrowing excesses in the DM, rising long-term government bond yields, and recent cyclical lows in US corporate credit spreads, volatility for DM bonds has risen substantially since 2020, prompting the expression the “EM’ification of DM debt”. Meanwhile EM IG bonds have been relatively stable, and the search by asset allocators for alternatives to DM bonds will likely continue the pivot to EM IG bonds. Beneath the surface of the short-term volatilities and possibly a longer-term repricing of multiple assets, Asian IG bonds and Saudi government sukuks may just be the sweet spots for attractive, uncorrelated and resilient returns regardless which side one is at on the debasement debate. In this article, our Senior Advisor Say Boon Lim discusses how the asset allocators are increasingly turning to EM IG bonds as compelling alternatives to DM bonds, for which our Premia JP Morgan Asia Credit Investment Grade USD Bond ETF (3411/9411 HK) and Premia BOCHK Saudi Arabia Government Sukuk ETF (3478/ 9478 HK) would be useful allocation tools in this pivot.

Nov 10, 2025