The issuance of G3 bonds in Asia, outside of Japan and Australasia, rose 13.3% to US$219.31 billion in the first nine months of 2025 from US$193.56 billion in the same period a year ago – despite market uncertainties and heightened geopolitical tensions – on the back of strong demand for capital to fund business expansion and economic growth, as well as the continuing robust appetite for US dollar-denominated assets.

At this level, it is projected that the total issuance at year-end will exceed the 2024 amount of US$233.28 billion. This year’s volume was underpinned by the plethora of transactions recorded in the first quarter, which totalled US$93.08 billion and subsequently moderated to US$63.83 billion in the second quarter and to US$62.41 billion in the third quarter.

There were 461 issuances during January-September 2025, figures supplied by LSEG show, against 371 a year earlier – the highest since the comparable period in 2022. The issuance volume was mainly driven by two markets, China and South Korea, with Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia also manifesting higher issuances.

Issuers out of China printed US$62.79 billion worth of bonds from 257 offerings, up from 181 deals valued at US$59.25 billion in the first nine months of 2024. South Korean issuers raised US$60.88 billion from 71 issuances, representing an increase against US$52.63 billion from 58 deals last year.

A total of US$26.41 billion worth of bonds were raised by Hong Kong issuers, up from US$18.53 billion in the first nine months of 2024, led by Airport Authority Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and MTR Corporation, while Singapore saw its G3 bond volume climb to US$17.14 billion in January-September 2025 from US$10.15 billion a year earlier.

Malaysia is another market that recorded a higher issuance volume of US$7.36 billion during the nine-month period, compared with US$2.73 billion in 2024 – due mainly to the huge US$5 billion offering by the state-owned oil and gas company Petronas in March, which was actually upsized from the initial amount of US$3 billion. This is the largest G3 corporate bond issuance, according to LSEG, from Asia, outside of Japan and Australasia, so far in 2025.

Indonesia and India, on the other hand, saw their issuance volume fall in the first nine months of 2025 to US$8.90 billion and US$4.78 billion, respectively, compared with US$9.93 billion and US$7.74 billion in 2024.

Meanwhile, high-yield G3 bond issuance fell 24.2% to US$8.32 billion in January-September 2025 from US$10.97 billion the year before. Based on LSEG data, the decline was contributed by the lower issuance volume out of India, which amounted to only US$2.57 billion from six transactions, against US$4.38 billion printed in the same 2024 period from 12 deals. The issuances were led by Greenko Wind Projects ( Mauritius ), which priced a US$1 billion offering in March and Muthoot Finance, which printed a US$600 million bond in August.

PTT Global Chemical of Thailand arranged the largest high-yield bond transaction so far in 2025, raising in September a total of US$1.1 billion in two tranches of subordinated perpetual capital securities. The other notable high-yield bond issuance in September was the US$500 million offering by Melco Resorts Finance, whose proceeds are intended to repay its senior unsecured notes due in 2026.

ESG-related bonds ( green, social, sustainability, sustainability-linked and blue ), on the other hand, saw their volume falling to US$45.26 billion in the first nine months of 2025, compared with US$46.32 billion the year before. Chinese issuers dominated the market, according to LSEG, with a total of US$23.42 billion, up from US$19.91 billion in 2024, followed by South Korea with US$10.32 billion, down from US$11.88 billion last year.