China Research

A discussion forum on emerging markets, mainly China – from a macro, micro, institutional and corporate angle.

U.S. tariff developments remain important to many emerging markets

August 21, 2025

Many emerging markets and less developed countries are closely linked to the development of the United States; according to my own definition emerging markets have taken more structural steps in a promising direction than all the clearly lagging developing countries in the world. Growth and market potential is simply more favorable in emerging economies.

This is why Western investors, financial and academic analysts often emphasize on emerging economies. I myself have been doing this for many years at Linnaeus University. Many analytical tools for the studies of emerging markets are similar to those being applied to advanced countries – but quite a number of these analytical tools are also different or have to be used additionally. For example, institutional conditions like transparency and the quality of statistics or ethics are different. But also the interpretation of widely published statistics – such as for GDP growth and inflation – differs normally between developed and less developed countries for the same statistical number.  

Examples of emerging countries are – when quoting the IMF (see https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO ) – in alphabetical order: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, and the Ukraine. So much in general terms.

Strong impact of the U.S. on emerging markets’ exports    

As much as one sixth of total exports from the emerging and developing world goes these days to the U.S. Many of these countries are, particularly hit by raised U.S. tariffs – also since tariffs for many of these countries have been raised unevenly. This could mean new conditions for competition.

Emerging countries for which the U.S. is the main market for their exports are listed in the following table (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/exports-partners/). One could find there in 2023, for example, the U.S. as the number one export market for Mexico (76 % of total exports), Cambodia (36 %), Vietnam (28 %), Columbia (27% ), Sri Lanka (22 %), Ecuador (22 %), India (19 %), Thailand (18%), Bangladesh (16 %), Kenya (10 %) and as the number two market for Chile (16 %), Peru (14 %), The Philippines (13 %), Malaysia (12 %), Brazil (10%), Indonesia (9 %) and South Africa (8 %) among others.

Conclusion:  When looking at the tariffs that have been (preliminarily?) implemented by President Trump (see https://dimerco.com/news-press/us-tariff-update-2025/ ), one can recognize that the emerging markets quoted above (and many others) are heavily hit by the American protectionist tariffs – meaning a negative impact on the potential output of these emerging countries. Logically, the less developed countries are hoping that (more) free trade will come back not too far away – and so do many Western corporations which could benefit themselves from better export conditions of emerging countries to the U.S. Such a development would improve GDP growth in emerging countries and their future  inflow of new U.S. dollars for widened imports – and, thus, create improving Western market conditions in parts of the emerging market area as well.

Hubert Fromlet
Affiliate Professor at the School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University

Emerging markets and a strong dollar

May 27, 2024

Emerging markets are usually more sensitive to weak current account balances than advanced countries. A deficit in the balance on current account urges for a currency inflow since it implies a debt for imports vis-a-vis other countries that has to be paid. This inflow can be done in the three following ways:

¤ by receiving currency reserves via foreign direct investment (which often does not work as an available or sufficient financial source),

¤ by borrowing money in foreign currency (mostly in U.S. dollar, USD), or

¤ by selling stocks, bonds, etc to foreign investors (if such financial products exist in the emerging country and foreign demand for these papers is there).

Statistics show that emerging markets borrow the lion share of their foreign credits in USD which may be challenging in times when the American dollar is strong on global currency markets. This is actually the case. Serving existing debt in USD uses to be even much more challenging.

By the way: During a meeting the other day with American financial analysts, I heard the view that the USD historically tended to be strong when investments in research and development (R&D) in the U.S. were high. This is explained by an increasing demand for American technology stocks and also foreign action for FDI in the U.S., thus leading to a high demand for the dollar and therefore to the strengthening of the American currency. I am not quite sure about the general validity of this suggested correlation. But it can be observed that such conditions can be found these days.

Back to emerging markets. What we can see today is an increasing willingness of certain emerging markets to avoid or decrease new borrowing in USD. However, this is not easy to achieve since USD markets function by far as the biggest global supplier of new loans, also to emerging markets. 

The ongoing situation with the strong dollar is, of course, particularly difficult for emerging countries with high indebtedness in USD. Such countries may be found in all continents – countries that are or have been reporting growing pressure on their currencies in 2024 such as the Nigerian Naira, the Egyptian Pound, the Turkish Lira, the Indonesian rupee, the Argentine peso or the Brazilian real (watch for this the following IMF table: https://stats.bis.org/statx/srs/table/e2?m=USD). Of course, some of these and other weak currencies of emerging markets have also been impacted by other negative factors than the strong dollar, for example domestic political ones.

At the same time, there are also countries trying to reduce their exposure to the dollar (which also can be seen in the IMF table quoted above). Indonesia is such an example. However, such a trend will not be easy to achieve – but Thailand actually managed it in the past few decades. Perhaps another option may gain momentum as it is currently the case in South East Asia, i.e. trying to expand borrowing within the region at the expense of the USD.  

Conclusion: Analysts of emerging markets should watch the further development of the USD and its impact on indepted emerging markets.

Hubert Fromlet Affiliate Professor at the School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University
Editorial board

Turkey’s enormous problems

August 13, 2018

From my previous professional life as a bank chief economist I remember very well the Turkish banking crisis of 2000/2001, followed by a major economic downturn (GDP 2001: -5.3%). Prior to the banking crisis, macroeconomic imbalances in mainly the budget and the current account had worsened alarmingly and, thus, strongly contributed to fading international confidence in Turkey’s financial – and also political – system. The lira weakened strongly at the time. Foreign investors sold huge amounts of their Turkish T-bills and even stocks. Logically, the currency reserves shrank dramatically. At the end of the day, the IMF provided Turkey with a 10.5 billion financial rescue package. After this, a serious political crisis followed all the same – before an economic recovery could be noted and the weak banking system was reformed into a more stable shape.

Unfortunately, the acute starting position of the current Turkish crisis does not look very different from the one 17 years ago. Major macroeconomic fiscal and trade imbalances exist also today. The Turkish currency has dropped substantially not only in recent days but also by around 35 percent so far in 2018.

Political conditions, however, look partly different this time – with other kinds of political leadership in both Turkey and the U.S., giving the current economic problems in Turkey even stronger political dimensions than in the beginning of this century. But this does not necessarily mean that the current Turkish crisis “automatically” will end in a more benign way, particularly when considering president Trump’s current resistance to potentially needed major international global financial rescue actions.

Worst case scenario

Still, the worst case scenario is only a scenario. But the current situation is critical and can aggravate further. The worst case scenario could include major bank problems in Turkey with contagion to EU banks that have major loan and securities involvement in the Turkish financial system. Such a development could lead to major GDP losses in mainly Turkey but also to a more limited extent in the EU. Read, by the way, more about this relationship in the research of Hyman Minsky!

All this leads to the conclusion that the coming development in Turkey should be given very strong analytical attention. President Trump’s future ideas and action play certainly an important role in this respect. Sometimes, he changes his mind unexpectedly in another direction. But Turkey itself should also under all circumstances work more ambitiously with its ongoing macroeconomic imbalances, particularly since the country is highly indebted abroad – both what concerns private and public debt.

Experience from other countries with similar challenges shows that nervous or speculating financial markets usually are stronger than the defense lines set up by the pressured country with its currency reserves – unless the acute problems are combatted promptly or surprisingly positive news make the whole picture brighter.

Hubert Fromlet
Affiliate Professor at the School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University
Editorial board

 

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