Fixed Income
Ukraine’s sovereign Eurobonds enjoyed a big rally last week ahead of optimism that moderate pro-European oligarch Petro Poroshenko would be elected as the country’s next president on the first ballot in Sunday’s (May 25) presidential election, thereby avoiding an additional 3 weeks of political uncertainty ahead of a June 15 runoff vote. Another positive factor was news that Russia’s military units have started moving their camps back from the Ukrainian border and toward their home bases. However, a peaceful resolution of the situation in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk still looks far away, as pro-Russian rebels continued to exchange fire with government forces at various sites in Donetsk oblast as well as in the city of Slavyansk, which has been the epicenter of the clashes. In economic news, the World Bank approved a loan of USD 1.5bn to Ukraine for implementation of structural economic reforms. The benchmark Ukraine-2023 issue advanced by 5.1% to close at 90.6/92.1
