Lebanon may have just repaid $1.5 billion of Eurobonds, but its chances of escaping a default still look grim. It will probably come down to how far it can stretch its foreign reserves while containing the worst currency crisis since it pegged the pound over two decades ago, Bloomberg News reported. On both counts, recent developments have been negative. The central bank’s reserves dropped by nearly $800 million in the first two weeks of November alone.

As Lebanon’s crisis-hit bonds flash warnings of a sovereign debt distress ahead, any potential restructuring is likely complicated by the absence of widely-used legal clauses barring bondholders from holding up the negotiations in the courts, Reuters reported. Lebanon is one of the few countries - alongside the Bahamas, Azerbaijan, Macedonia and Poland - to not include so-called enhanced collective action clauses, or CACs, in the legal framework governing its recent bond sales.

Creditors of Abu Dhabi-based Al Jaber Group are considering enforcing claims against the owners of the group after delays in executing a restructuring agreement, the latest in a long-running debt dispute, two sources familiar with the matter said. Al Jaber, best known as a contractor but with interests across a range of sectors, has struggled since a construction downturn in the United Arab Emirates after the global financial crisis, Reuters reported.

Saudi Arabia is closely monitoring how much banks are lending to local investors rushing to buy shares in Aramco and what impact the mammoth offering will have on the kingdom’s financial sector, Bloomberg News reported. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority wants daily updates on how much credit banks are providing after it eased lending limits for buyers, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The political crisis in Lebanon has sent yields on some of its dollar bonds into triple digits. Rates on the government’s $1.2 billion of notes maturing in March next year have climbed 28 percentage points this week to 105%, Bloomberg News reported. They were at 13% five weeks ago, just before the start of protests that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri and exacerbated the nation’s economic woes. Protesters marched to parliament in Beirut on Tuesday, forcing it to suspend a session as the army and riot police tried to disperse them.

A new insolvency law to help UAE residents clear bad debts will ease the burden of heavy liabilities as the threat of criminal sanctions is removed, according to analysts, The National reported. The federal law, passed by the UAE Cabinet on Sunday, protects Emiratis and residents in debt from legal prosecution and decriminalises their financial obligations, offering them an opportunity to work to resolve their financial dilemma while still supporting their families.

Investors are braced for more losses on Lebanese bonds as Beirut faces urgent calls to restructure its towering debt pile, the Financial Times reported. The value of Lebanon’s sovereign debt has plummeted since rating agencies pushed the dollar bonds even deeper into junk territory earlier this month. The country’s two-year bond has lost a quarter of its value over the past 30 days and now trades at 64 cents on the dollar.

The withdrawal of a candidate to become Lebanon’s prime minister is once again threatening to drag out the process at a time the country faces calls to take urgent steps necessary to avoid economic collapse, Bloomberg News reported. Mohammed Safadi, a wealthy Lebanese businessman and former finance minister, put an end to his bid just two days after winning the backing of Lebanon’s major political parties. Lebanon has been without a government since Saad Hariri resigned late last month in the face of protests over mismanagement that’s pushed the economy to the verge of bankruptcy.

Lebanon just got one of its starkest warnings yet that it will need to restructure its $30 billion of Eurobonds. Franklin Templeton, which oversees more than $690 billion of assets worldwide, said the government will have to renegotiate the debt load to stave off an economic collapse, Bloomberg News reported. “The system is broken and the credibility is gone,” Mohieddine Kronfol, the firm’s Dubai-based chief investment officer for Middle Eastern and North African fixed income, said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Tracy Alloway and Yousef Gamal El-Din.

Investors in frontier-market bonds are on course to get their best returns in seven years. It looks like it’ll be a lot tougher in 2020, Bloomberg News reported. Some of the biggest money managers are already becoming more selective. BNP Paribas Asset Management, which oversees almost $500 billion in assets, is sticking to countries with sound fiscal management such as Ivory Coast, or those with investment-grade ratings like Kazakhstan, Uruguay and Morocco. Aberdeen Standard Investments sees opportunities to get above-market returns by buying the bonds of Sri Lanka, Ecuador and Ghana.