Sovereign funds to turn to non — dollar bonds amid AI — driven liquidity crunch, Citi banker says

By Selena Li Bangkok, Oct 15 (Reuters) — Sovereign wealth funds are increasingly raising funds outside dollar-denominated bonds as the intensifying competition to raise capital increases the costs of issuing debt, a senior banker at Citi who deals with the sector said on Thursday. Local currency debt markets, such as the Chinese renminbi, Australian dollar, Hong Kong dollar and Singapore dollar, are drawing interest from public and private issuers looking to diversify their funding, Citi's global head of public sector group Stephanie von Friedeburg told Reuters. "There is a limited pool of capital, and for the first time in many years, the public-sector sovereigns and the private corporates are competing for that capital. And it's really being driven by sovereigns needing to borrow," she said on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok. Sovereign wealth funds are the world's largest group of institutional investors. Globally, their assets totalled around $16.5 trillion as of this month, according to tracking data from Global SWF. Benchmark 10-year government bond yields in the world's 10 largest developed economies have ​risen by an average of 81 basis points so