Globally, most emerging markets stocks and bonds performed well in January. Investors regained their appetite for risk. This was thanks in part to the last-minute deal between President Barack Obama’s administration and the Republican leadership in the US Congress over the ‘fiscal cliff’. It was also partly due to the announcement of a new and very aggressive easing in fiscal and monetary policy in Japan. Meanwhile, economic data suggested that the worst of the recession in the euro area is past. Latin American financial markets benefited from the improvement in investor risk appetite. In US dollar terms, MSCI’s Latin America…