It looks as though local markets are slowly making the transition from flavour of the month to full-fledged asset class. In mid-June, JPMorgan launched a suite of new products, called the GBI-EM (Government Bond Index – Emerging Markets) that will provide a benchmark for local-currency debt.
JPMorgan has long had the EMBI (Emerging Market Bond Index) and its cognates – indices that follow emerging-market debt denominated in dollars or euros. It's also had a GBI for developed market government bonds. There was an obvious gap, and one that has increasingly needed to be filled as large real-money bond investors move more of their funds into local markets.
The move...
