South Africa’s economy has been sluggish in recent years, but upcoming changes could provide hope for institutional investors considering opportunities in the country. Its economy has been in a low-to-modest growth mode, said Falilou Fall, senior economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, during the Canadian Investment Review’s podcast “Pension Passport.” He highlighted […]
MSCI Inc. is updating certain key indexes, with changes taking effect when the market closes on Tuesday. Stemming from MSCI’s most recent quarterly index review, the changes include increasing both Saudi Arabian stocks and China A-shares within the emerging markets index. The updates will mark the second and final step in the inclusion of the MSCI Saudi Arabia index, […]
Looking at South Korea today, it’s hard to believe the country was one of the world’s poorest just a few decades ago. But since the 1960s, its economy has been growing quickly. “In fact, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, it had one of the highest growth rates in the world, and at times in […]
While emerging markets have been underperforming their developed counterparts over the past decade, this may be about to change. “Basically, everything went wrong in emerging markets in the last 10 years,” said Laurence Bensafi, deputy head of emerging markets equity at RBC Global Asset Management Inc., in a webinar hosted by the Association of Canadian Pension Management […]
I am optimistic about China’s medium-term economic prospects, within the context of gradually slower year-over-year growth rates. This optimism is based largely on the continuing evolution of government policy designed to embrace private enterprise and markets. My biggest concern is that there has been little parallel evolution in China’s governance and institutions. China’s economy and […]
The People’s Bank of China announced that it’s opening up its financial markets to foreign investors in several new and quite granular ways. Among the developments, China is allowing foreign-funded institutions to conduct credit rating business on assets in the country’s inter-bank and exchange bond markets. Andrew Mattock, a portfolio manager at Matthews Asia, recalls […]
While there are signals that the global economy is slowing down, it doesn’t appear to be quite at recession levels. “That has major investment implications,” said Alec Young, managing director of global markets research at FTSE Russell, in a webinar on Wednesday. Trade uncertainty is a big part of recent sluggishness in markets, he said. […]
Global protectionism appears to be here for the long game. While investors may not want to start playing defence just yet, it might be time to start practicing again. In it’s mid-year outlook, the BlackRock Investment Institute noted risk reduction, including elevating the levels of cash in a portfolio, would be a prudent measure given the […]
As talks of U.S.-China trade tensions dominate headlines, many investors are keeping a close watch. On June 29, 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met on the margins of the G20 in Japan. What really stood out from the meeting is that an agreement was reached to resume trade negotiations, says […]
Looking back at the first half of 2019, bond and equity markets seem to be telling opposing stories, according to T.Rowe Price’s mid-year market outlook. Strong gains in equity markets in the U.S. and certain emerging regions would appear to suggest a renewed confidence in earnings for the year to come, the report said. Meanwhile, […]