The biggest news stories over the summer months
In the years prior to 1997, the countries known as the Asian tigers (Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand) experienced extraordinary economic performance along with macroeconomic stability.
Valuations attractive
Japan (Topix) is doing well this year in US dollar terms, up 12% compared to 11% for the S&P 500 and 13% for the MSCI World index.
The issues facing Japan with respect to its ageing population are well documented.
With 17,000 listed companies in Asia Pacific ex Japan, the search for good quality businesses available at attractive valuations is immense.
Amid the attention focused on the recent downgrade of China, it is easy to forget that Indonesia was upgraded the week beforehand, when Standard & Poor's became the third and last of the major agencies to rate the country as investment grade (BBB-).