Alma Gramercy Emerging Markets Debt Fund Falls 3.70% in March Amid Global Risk-Off Selloff

Alma Gramercy Emerging Markets Debt Fund returned -3.70% in March 2026, slightly trailing the JPMorgan EM Equal Weight Index, which fell 3.55%. The $218 million strategy is managed by Philip Meier and Belinda Hill.

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Market Landscape

March markets were dominated by the escalating geopolitical tensions that followed the February 28 U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. Energy prices surged as investors reassessed supply risks, reigniting inflation concerns and driving a sharp repricing of global monetary policy expectations. That repricing weighed on the fund’s longer-duration holdings. U.S. Treasury yields rose across the curve, with the 30-year Treasury yield increasing 30 basis points as inflation risk premia widened.

The risk-off backdrop pressured both developed and emerging market assets. Equity markets declined globally while the U.S. dollar strengthened on safe-haven demand, creating additional headwinds for EM local-currency debt. EM local-currency sovereign bonds led declines, with the GBI-EM Global Diversified Index returning -5.55%. The EMBI Global Diversified Index, tracking EM hard-currency sovereigns, returned -3.27%, while EM hard-currency corporates proved more resilient, with the CEMBI Broad Diversified Index down 1.83%.