Kuala Lumpur

A MILITARY regime delaying elections, haircuts for foreign investors using local courts and a prime minister fighting a financial scandal are among risks that funds are looking past as they pile into South-east Asian debt.

Foreigners have pumped US$12 billion into Thai, Indonesian and Malaysian notes this year, more than twice as much as in 2015. Thailand, where Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha has not set a date for a vote two years after taking power in a coup, has lured the most inflows. Indonesia has reaped rewards from easing inflation, despite losses for foreign investors in two high-profile defaults. In Malaysia, a rebound in oil has offset concern over global probes into an investment company whose chief adviser is Prime Minister Najib Razak.