In a recent interview, three emerging market fund managers aired a common view: the asset class which comprises emerging markets represents a solid investment. Their reasoning is that the tremendous declines wrought in emerging market equities and currencies over the last six months were caused primarily by technical factors, rather than a substantive change in the long-term economic picture. In other words, this drop was effected by foreign investors that withdrew money en masse from emerging markets in order to meet fund redemptions and repay loans denominated in Dollars. At the same time, economic analysis, as well as common sense, dictate that an increasing portion of future global growth will be realized in the developing world. Many such countries have invested wisely in infrastructure and built up sizable foreign exchange reserves. Consequently, they are well-positioned to survive the current downturn intact. Accordingly, once investors "come to their senses" and recover their collective appetite for riskier investments, it probably won't be long before emerging market assets and currencies are bid up to pre-crisis levels. Forbes reports:
"Current valuation of emerging markets is the lowest it has been since I began investing in this asset class in 1988. Based on trailing 12-month earnings, emerging markets is trading at a price/earnings ratio of only 7.7x, and a price/book of 1.3x (with return on equity at 17%)," [observed one analyst].
Read More: Emerging Markets: What To Buy
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