Emerging Market Wrap Up

Today's FT has a comprehensive summary of the current state of emerging markets. Not surprisingly, China and India are the clear winners, while the picture in the rest of the world is more murky. Perceived government mismanagement has steered investors away from Argentina and Venezuela, while Central and Eastern European nations, particularly Russia, continue to suffer the most.

The article, "Developing nations shine amid the crisis gloom", is well worth the read, and has some excellent quotes from leading emerging market investors, like this one from Robert Buckland, global head of equity strategy at Citigroup:

The financial crisis has been the making of the emerging markets in that they are no longer some kind of super-cyclical play.  It is no longer the case that if you downgrade US GDP by 1 per cent, the emerging market GDP will be downgraded by 2 or 3 per cent.  The balance sheet management of the emerging markets has been better in this crisis than the developed world.

Decoupling, anyone?