CentAm Debt Performs Strongly in September: Bear Stearns

Central America and Caribbean sovereign debt performed very strongly in September, says Bear Stearns. The shop’s BSCAX index of those regions returned 2.44% last month, slightly more than the 2.14% rise in global sovereign debt. “Belize, El Salvador and Panama outperformed the market, while Costa Rica, Grenada, T&T, Barbados and Bahamas underperformed,” says Bear. In mid-yielding credits, the shop says the Dominican Republic 2011 bonds look cheap to their CentAm peers. “These bonds have widened relative to Guatemala ’11s, for example, but also versus El Salvador and Costa Rica. Moreover, the DR ’11s are two years shorter in average life,” says Bear.