How population growth will benefit investors

DEMOGRAPHICS

As the global population passes the seven billion mark, John Haynes, head of research at Investec Wealth & Investment, explains why investors have nothing to fear from a crowded world.

The majority of investment analysis is focused on understanding the day-to-day opportunities presented by asset markets. Is this share cheap? Is the economic cycle overheating? However, the study of the impact of demographics on asset prices stands out by exception. How changes in the size and mix of population affect a country’s economic development is a secular, not a cyclical, conundrum that has exercised minds for centuries. Population saturation The current concern is essentially whether we are finally reaching the point of global population saturation. The combination of mo...