A total of USD 115bn of Eurobonds were issued by Emerging Market (EM) issuers in January, buoyed by higher demand from crossover investors. The Brazilian government had its chosen leaders elected for both parliamentary chambers, demonstrating it has enough political clout to vote through economic reforms. The first round of the presidential election in Ecuador had no clear winner. Ukraine purged foreign television channels and expelled parliamentarians linked to Russia. Argentina’s shale oil production hit a record high and tax revenues increased in real terms. The Reserve Bank of India kept the policy rate unchanged. The Peruvian Constitutional Tribunal nullified the public pension withdrawal bill approved last year. In Russia, the leader of the opposition Alexei Navalny was sentenced to more than 2.5 years of additional prison time.