Emerging market funds: Old friends
THE WEST IS increasingly passé as a destination for investment. The financial crisis and the recession have further underlined the limits to growth in the developed world and the opportunities available in Asia and Latin America. It is no longer just a story of businesses in rich countries transferring capital to these regions by outsourcing labour or buying natural resources, domestic consumption is on the up in the Bric countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). They are now viewed as the worlds engines of economic growth, at least by some analysts.
Moreover, some western creditors are aware of a possible need to transfer more of their lending away from their stagnating home economies, many of which are vastly over-leveraged, towards the better fundamental growth opportunities available elsewhere, where credit is lacking. Rexiter, a London fund management firm specializing in emerging markets, reckons...