Covid-19 is spreading rapidly in large developing countries such as Argentina and India,, but prices of their government bonds have barely budged.
“Real rates are high in India,” said Polina Kurdyavko, an emerging markets portfolio manager at BlueBay Asset Management. “All else being equal, it’s attractive.” India's Covid-19 crisis has resulted in record numbers of cases and deaths. WSJ breaks down the chain of events that led to the fastest-growing wave of infection since the pandemic started, and what it means for the world. Photo: Samuel Rajkumar/Reuters
Governments in Europe and North America, which have older populations and stronger social safety nets, mostly shut down during their contagion flare ups. India followed a similar strategy in 2020 butr for fear of the economic fallout. Leaders in the poorest countries must balance the human cost of widespread infections against that of tipping citizens with no savings into destitution.