A Bangladeshi mother with her nine-month-old son, who is receiving treatment for measles amid the country’s worst ever outbreak of the disease. Photo: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters
Angola is hoping to draw foreign investors into its 17 trillion kwanza ($18.6 billion) domestic bond market, finance minister Vera Daves de Sousa told Reuters this week. The move is part of a push to widen the oil producer's funding base and rely less on dollar borrowing.
Angola's finance minister Vera Daves de Sousa. Photo: Ken Cedeno/Reuters
The government is in talks with JPMorgan over inclusion in a new frontier-market local-currency debt index the bank is preparing, and will meet international investors in Luanda later this month to gauge appetite. Foreigners can already buy Angolan paper, but central bank approval and local banking arrangements have kept most portfolio money out. Index membership, alongside expected peers Nigeria and Kenya, would give passive funds a reason to hold kwanza debt.
Oil firms pledge $10bn to support Angola production (BusinessInsider)
Daves de Sousa is hoping positive recent economic news—the economy grew 8.74% year-on-year, its strongest since 2022—will help attract investors. She also flagged possible bond sales in 2027 in currencies beyond the dollar, including the Chineseyuan.
Protests erupt in Gambia over power blackouts
Gambia’s President Adama Barrow promised to boost electricity supplies by the end of October, after protests over months of rolling blackouts intensified this week, Al Jazeera reports. Demonstrators took to the streets, demanding Barrow’s resignation, with some gathering near his residence and the headquarters of the National Water and Electricity Corporation.
Demonstrators burn tires and block a road during a protest over the country’s persistent power outages. Photo: AFP
Barrow said the rolling outages—some lasting as long as 48 hours—are a national security issue and pledged to install a new 24-megawatt generator by the end of October. He also announced construction would begin soon on a new 50-megawatt solar plant.
NAWEC has blamed the power shortage on a demand surge alongside strained electricity imports. Barrow, who came to power in 2016 promising democratic reform and term limits for the presidency, is up for reelection in December, in which he's seeking a third term.
Asia
Vietnam ups cooperation with autocrats
Vietnam agreed to deepen its partnerships with both Myanmar and Russia this week in a pair of state visits at home and abroad.
At a meeting on Saturday in Hanoi, Vietnam’s leader To Lam and Myanmar’s president Min Aung Hlaing agreed to boost economic and security ties. Min Aung Hlaing, who until this year led Myanmar’s military junta, toured an electric vehicle factory and visited Vietnam’s state-owned telecom giant, Reuters reports.
Myanmar’s President Min Aung Hlaing (left) with his Vietnamese counterpart To Lam at National Assembly Building in Hanoi. Photo: Reuters
To Lam then hit the road to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Putin threw him a state dinner, according to the Kremlin. Vietnam and Russia signed a deal on Wednesday to establish a strategic reserve of oil in the Southeast Asian country, the Moscow Times reports. Putin also said Russia was working to eliminate the need for visas for Vietnamese citizens, according to Russian media.
Philippines plans $34bn AI infrastructure push
The Philippines this week published a $34 billion plan to build out its AI infrastructure over the next seven years. The framework calls for $21 billion in investment from the private sector with the remainder coming from the government, Nikkei reports.
The program seeks to increase the country’s AI data center capacity 30-fold and create 675,000 jobs, according to the official Philippine News Agency.
The plan comes as the Philippines seeks to present itself as a hub for high-tech manufacturing. In April, the US and the Philippines announced a plan to build a 4,000 acre industrial complex on the archipelago, with a focus on AI hardware.
Bangladesh is fighting its worst ever outbreak of measles, with more than 1,000 children dead so far this year, according to Bangladeshi public health officials. The country’s Directorate General of Health Services has reported almost 200,000 cases of measles since March, Al Jazeera reports.
A mother with her nine-month-old son, who is receiving treatment for measles in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters
The former director of Bangladesh’s Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research told Reuters that the outbreak was attributable to vaccination gaps over the past two years, when upheaval surrounding the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina disrupted public health campaigns.
About 86% of children received the recommended second dose of the measles vaccine in 2025, down from 93% in 2024, according to World Health Organization data. Bangladesh is now racing to vaccinate its children, AP reports.
Middle East
Saudi oil output slumps as Houthi ceasefire breaks down
Saudi Arabia this week cut oil production levels to their lowest point this year after a fragile ceasefire with Yemen’s Houthis broke down, the FT reports. In a wave of attacks, the Houthis struck multiple energy facilities, adding to existing pressure on production and transportation.
The Houthi offensive began with drone and missile strikes on four Saudi Aramco facilities, causing at least 73 casualties and yet-undetermined damage to oil refineries, the AP reports. The strikes are reportedly the largest attack on Saudi Arabia’s energy facilities in years.
Saudi Arabia’s oil output has slumped over the past year. Source OPEC via FT
A response on the ground by Saudi-coalition forces was met with an aggressive counteroffensive by the Houthis along the coast, resulting in the collapse of coalition forces in the area and the Houthi capture of Mokha—a port city critical to resupplying southern Yemen and controlling the Bab el Mandeb sea-lanes. Iranian military advisors and weapons systems have played a key role in the Houthi operation’s success, suggesting Tehran is opening a new front in the war with the US, Reuters reports.
Pakistan, which along with Turkey signed a mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia, has so far ruled out intervention, claiming that “no such discussions” are being held under the agreement.
Iran war drags on Iraq’s finances
Iraq’s central bank has drawn down at least $16 billion in foreign exchange reserves since the start of the US-Iran war to support the government’s public sector payroll, AGBI reports.
Analysts estimate that the bank’s reserves are down to around $83-86 billion from a pre-war high of $102 billion, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has throttled Iraq’s oil exports to just 1.5 million barrels per day, down from an average 3.4 million.
Iraq’s oil revenues are held in the US, which controls disbursements. Heavy sanctions against Iran and concerns about the country’s links to the Iraqi financial system have prompted the US to slow transfers, conditioning them on Baghdad further distancing itself from Tehran.
Europe
Student pressure prompts early elections in Serbia
Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic signed a decree to dissolve parliament and scheduled early parliamentary elections for October 25th. Vucic, who has held executive power as president or prime minister for twelve years, will lead his Serbian Progressive Party's list as its candidate for prime minister.
Vucic’s primary opponent will be a candidate chosen by Student List, a political party organized by student protesters. Hundreds of thousands have participated in anti-corruption demonstrations since 2024 when a railway station canopy collapsed, killing 16.
Aleksandar Vucic signs the decision on early elections. Photo: Aleksandar Vucic via Instagram
Vucic said the protests, which he has claimed were instigated and supported by “foreign powers”, are not the only driver of the snap elections. The October vote may be the strongest challenge he’s yet faced, according to the FT, as the student-led opposition has formed a formidable base.
Bucharest leads surging Emerging European stock markets
Romania's stock exchange, the BET index, is the best performing national stock index in Europe this year despite a 6.7% drop in August, Romania Insider reports. The index has risen 42.3% since January and is up more than 60% over the past 12 months.
Most of August's drop came in the final sessions—the index shed 3.6% on August 31 alone, the day Romania forfeited €770 million in EU recovery funds by missing a deadline for legal reforms. Most of the index’s growth can be attributed to the energy and banking sectors.
The strength extends across the region: Hungary is up 33.1% this year, Poland 31.3% and Bulgaria 22.9%. Alexandru Dobre of Bucharest-based brokerage TradeVille said: “The correct story is no longer Romania, alone in Europe, but Central and Eastern Europe leads Europe, and Romania leads the region”, Ziarul Financiar reports. Dobre warns, however, that concentration remains a risk.
Latin America
El Salvador set to receive IMF cash
El Salvador reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF on the second and third reviews of its $1.4 billion program, positioning it for a $140 million disbursement.
The multilateral said the government had agreed to push fiscal consolidation further, targeting a primary surplus of 3.7% of GDP in 2027, while preparing pension and civil-service reforms. It also wants El Salvador to keep building reserves and liquidity buffers as it reduces public debt.
El Salvador’s capital, San Salvador. Photo: Jose Cabezas/Reuters
The review brought a further tightening of the country’s bitcoin framework. Majority ownership and operating control of the Chivo wallet have passed to a private operator, while the IMF said bitcoin that had been accumulated since the first review had come from private donations rather than public money.
Colombia signs mineral and nuclear pacts with US
Colombia this week signed agreements on critical-mineral supply chains and civil nuclear cooperation with the US, giving the countries a formal basis to broaden a bilateral reset, according to the US government.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington and Bogotá would now look beyond security to energy, trade, and commerce. Colombian officials said they also discussed US support for infrastructure, energy, housing, and productive reconstruction after the devastating August earthquake.
Colombia’s President Abelardo De La Espriella, left, with Marco Rubio in Barranquilla, Colombia this week. Photo: Fernando Vergara/AP
The agreements do not yet commit funding or projects, but they place Colombia’s minerals and energy sector inside a US framework for supply-chain security, investment, and technology cooperation.
What We’re Reading
Togo-led push wins broad UN support for more accurate map projections (Ecofin Agency)
Senegal PM says country must clear $3.5bn arrears (Reuters)
Zimbabwe suspends antimony and tungsten exports in processing push (Bloomberg)
Italy offers to mediate between Egypt and Ethiopia over Nile waters (Middle East Monitor)
Documents reveal alleged chemical weapons stockpile in Sudan (Washington Post)
Vitol’s exclusive Namibia fuel supply deal extended for October (Bloomberg)
Global investors tiptoe back to Indonesia (Bloomberg)
We are committed to providing FMN readers with a free weekly digest of politically unbiased, succinct and clear news and information from frontier and small emerging markets.
Please consider becoming a paid supporter to help cover some of our costs and support our continued development of sharp markets-focused coverage and new informational products. Paid subscribers will also gain exclusive access to our EM/FM reports that aggregate insights from dozens of major banks, international institutions and consultancies.
