What could create a multi-year investment opportunity for EMs?

Global capital has only been gradually waking up to the potency of the middle class opportunity in emerging markets, particularly in China, writes Ed Butchart, chief investment officer at Sloane Robinson.

Phases of emerging market outperformance typically run for five or more years. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, this was supported by their arrival onto the world stage and the curtailment of hyperinflation in Latin America. In early 2003, a new phase began with the entrance of China into the World Trade Organisation and the development of a commodity super-cycle alongside that. Gallery: What will frontier markets look like in 2020? This leads us to ponder what might propel the more recent period of emerging market outperformance into a multi-year investment opportunity. We co...