TRADE WAR RISKS

LONDON : Trade war risks outweigh gains from stimulus for emerging markets.

Looser monetary policy from major central banks will help relieve some of the pressures felt by emerging markets but US-China trade tensions remain an urgent concern, a senior official at Fitch Ratings said.

Turkey, Russia and South Africa are among those to benefit from a stampede to high yielding assets in recent days as investors bet the United States Federal Reserve will cut the interest rates as early as next month AND

Mario Draghi hinted of further monetary easing by the European Central Bank. [ECB].

Among the big movers, the Russian rouble surged to its highest level since August 2018 while South Africa's 2044 dollar bond reached its highest point since January 2018.

But Fitch managing director Tony Stringer said any positive lift could be short-lived.

''More accommodative monetary policy from the major central banks, including the Fed and ECB, could to some extent mitigate major emerging markets, but we don't think-

That will be sufficient to prevent the damage that could come from an escalation in trade tensions between the US and China,'' he said on the sidelines of a conference. [Reuters]