China will maintain its gradual and cautious approach to financial liberalization. However, the pace will gradually accelerate as the cost of restrictions on more strategically important sectors becomes increasingly apparent.

Some 95% of rated EMEA companies have sufficient liquidity to meet debt maturities and other cash requirements over a 12-month period without accessing new funding, compared with 96% in our 2018 study. The pockets of liquidity weakness are mainly among high-yield companies and because of company-specific factors, such as online competition in retail. Brexit uncertainty appears to have had no discernible impact on the liquidity of rated UK companies.

Although Japan’s population has been shrinking and aging for decades, these demographic changes have accelerated in the past few years to become a serious risk to the profitability of banks and insurers in the country. Particularly, at many small banks, revenue no longer covers operating expenses, and their whole business model is under threat. Yet, large banks and insurers have options to mitigate the effects.