Gosling's Grouse: Evaluating risk

Evaluating risk

Do you remember when avian flu - H5N1 - was the big health risk facing world markets?

According to the World Health Organisation, over the past 10 years there have been just under 700 cases of bird flu with 393 people dying from the disease in countries ranging Vietnam to Azerbaijan. When H5N1 hit the headlines, large parts of the world economy were affected, in particular those of South East Asia. At the time, the global economy was in decent shape, with the China growth story really taking off, Russia looking like an investable market, and activity in the US, UK and Europe all respectable enough to make a case for investing in equity markets. The only major economy l...