Once again, Singapore stands out as the country perceived to have had the most stable monetary policy during the past year, according to our survey of 1,090 investors. Hong Kong, which is forever in competition with Singapore, didn’t even garner half the number of votes. Interestingly, China came in third, indicating a level of comfort with the managed currency.
Like last year, credit default swap (CDS) spreads are viewed as the number one indicator of default, according to those polled. While rating agency research does not top the list as an indicator, perhaps a sign that investors are regaining faith in the agencies is that the percentage who thought it was an indicator increased to 5.9%, up from just 4.1% last year.
And indeed, investors are pleased with the level of high-quality research about the contagion effects of the European and US sovereign debt crises and the possible impact of a double-dip global recession. Sadly, this was a topic we polled last year as well. We all look forward to not having to write about this in the future.
But the doom and gloom topic is here to stay for awhile, for although last year more than half of the respondents thought that distressed debt workouts were likely to decrease in Asia during the next 12 months, this year, more than half take the view that they are likely to increase in Asia during the next 12 months.
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