Moody's says 2019 green bonds to top USD 250bn

Moody's Investors Service now expects green bond issuance this year to surpass USD 250 billion (EUR 226bn), analyst Matthew Kuchtyak said Thursday.

The rating agency’s original forecast was for 2019 issuance of USD 200 billion.

At USD 189.5 billion, January-September 2019 green bond issuance has already surpassed the USD 171.1 billion total for the full 2018. The nine-month result is up 67% year-on-year.

In ther third quarter, 63.9 billion of green bonds have been issued globally. Non-financial and financial corporates were responsible for 48% of that volume, or USD 30.8 billion, according to Moody's report. In geographical terms, European issuers led the quarter with 40% or USD 25.4 billion of the total volume.

Moody's said the market will also be seeing more sustainability-linked loans and bonds as these allow issuers to “highlight the broader sustainability objectives of their organizations while retaining the flexibility of general corporate purposes borrowing.” The growth of sustainability-linked financing is seen to complement, rather than restrict, the growth of the labeled green, social and sustainability bond markets over the coming years.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.904)

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