Emerging-market slump expected to continue

Kuala Lumpur

EMERGING-market currencies slumped last year by the most in almost two decades, and analysts are forecasting further losses in 2016 due to China's slowdown and rising US interest rates.

The deteriorating sentiment also hurt stocks and bonds, with an index of equities covering developing countries posting the biggest annual drop since 2011. The premium that investors demand to hold emerging-market sovereign debt widened for an unprecedented third year after the Federal Reserve took the long-awaited move of tightening monetary policy and signalled more to come.