To understand how big the appetite is for emerging market debt these days, one should look at what has been happening to prices of bonds newly issued by Iraq, a country that has suffered one of the worst economic and political upheavals in recent history.

Since the bonds started trading officially at the beginning of the week, prices have jumped from about 70 to a high of nearly 74 this week. Andrew Chappell, associate director at Exotix, the London-based broker, says: “We are still seeing a lot of demand chasing very little paper.”