OREANDA-NEWS. Global Fitch-rated defaults progressed at a relatively benign pace through the first half of 2016, alongside global economic and geopolitical uncertainty. Across broad sectors, corporates, sovereigns, structured finance and public finance, Fitch registered no investment-grade defaults (or impairments) through June 2016.

The global corporate finance (financial and nonfinancial) default rate of 0.6% nearly aligned with the 0.8% default rate recorded a year earlier. The speculative-grade default rate of 1.9% was below the 2.7% recorded in the first half of 2015. Similar to 2016, commodity-related issuers contributed the bulk of nonfinancial defaults through the first half, resulting in a nonfinancial default rate of 0.9%. Financial institutions registered a 0.2% default rate over the period, comprising three emerging market bank defaults.

Structured finance impairment rates (defaults and near-defaults) were largely on par with a year earlier. The first-half structured finance impairment rate was 0.3%, compared with 0.2% in the first half of 2015.

The study 'Fitch Ratings Global Cross-Asset Default Update' is available on Fitch's web site under Transition and Default Studies, or by clicking on the link. The study contains first-half 2016 default rate results by broad sector and region.