The fast view
- Emerging market (EM) debt – spanning FX, local currency, hard currency, and corporate bond markets – is a diverse investment universe underpinned by a wide range of growing economies and companies. But it is under-owned in many portfolios.
- EM fundamentals are robust and over the next few years, EM economic growth is set to outpace developed-market growth by the widest margin in a decade.
- The past year’s performance reflects fundamental strength in EM, yet yields across the EM debt asset class remain high. This improves the income profile and return outlook while providing a buffer against future volatility.
- EM debt provides portfolio diversification benefits and offers active investors a rich hunting ground, given the varied behaviour of individual asset classes across the cycle and the large dispersion across markets that sit within these.
- A blended EM debt strategy allows investors to benefit from the divergent dynamics across the asset class while also capturing bottom-up selection opportunities across and within markets.
