Is the party over yet for Latin America?

LATIN AMERICA

William M Landers, portfolio manager for the BlackRock Latin American investment trust, explains why the investment case for Latin American equities is still strong despite recent underperformance.

The question mark in many investors’ minds is whether the golden years for investing in Latin America are behind us.  Latin America posted a return of nearly 400% during the ten years to 31 December 2009, but has been close to flat since that date. By comparison, the S&P 500 declined 23% during the same period, but has appreciated almost 40% since the end of 2009.  The principal cause of the recent Latin American underperformance has been disappointing growth in Brazil, both in the economy overall and in company earnings specifically. Brazil has seen its stock market fall over 30% sin...