Dubai: While fixed-income investors have become more attuned to risk over the course of 2018, geopolitical risks, including trade disputes, still top their list of concerns, according to this year’s second biannual poll of bond money managers by S&P Global Ratings.

“The Sino-US trade dispute has become a top worry for fixed-asset investors, second only to European political risk, most of which is related to Brexit,” said Ritesh Maheshwari, S&P Global Ratings managing director and Asia-Pacific head Of Market Outreach.

“Investors are also concerned about whether major economies such as China and the US will meet growth expectations.”

The global survey of 176 institutional investors in the fixed-income segment, conducted in conjunction with HSBC, showed that about one in 10 investors cited the prospect of a US slowdown as a risk. This is in contrast to our other biannual five surveys over the past three years, in which the issue of a negative US economic surprise was not raised as an issue.

Moreover, in the first survey in 2016, only about a third of respondents feared that China would miss growth expectations. Now, nearly half do, based on the latest poll, which closed in September.