From the exotic to the norm - two decades of emerging markets

Thinking back to 20 years ago, there was a buzz of excitement in the investment world as investors seeking above-average returns ventured in a handful of exotic economies.

In those days, there was also a lot of scepticism and lack of understanding surrounding emerging markets and to a certain extent there still is which remains one of the biggest disappointments of this asset class. It was difficult at the time because although there were many emerging market countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, very few of them were open or large enough for investment.  There were strict foreign exchange controls and limitations on foreign investment in additional to a plethora of problems of safekeeping of securities and market liquidity. Since then...