The 4th Annual “World Bank Government Bond Market Conference”, organized jointly by the World Bank, the Ministry of Public Finance, and the National Bank of Romania, is being held in Bucharest, on March 12th - 14th. This year’s event provides investor-country insights on the outlook and challenges for local currency bond markets.

Over the last decade, emerging market governments have increased the proportion of their financing in the domestic markets, primarily in local currency. Currently over 80 percent of emerging sovereign public debt outstanding is in the domestic markets.

While there is scope for improving the efficiency of these markets, the trend of domestic market financing is expected to continue, making it important for emerging market economies to pursue debt market reforms that will enable them to meet their financing needs in a cost-efficient manner at prudent levels of risk.

Source: Press release , World Bank

Speech by Elisabetta Capannelli, World Bank Country Manager for Romania and Hungary (as Prepared for delivery)