Why 2014 was India's most important year

Mark Williams, manager of the Liontrust Asia Income fund, highlights how far India has come over the past year and why, despite its strength, better opportunities may exist elsewhere in Asia in 2015.

It is hard to compare the situation in India today to a year ago. In December 2013, the previous Congress-led coalition government had presided over a raft of corruption scandals, rising deficits, high inflation, a weakening currency, and a lack of decision making. India’s reliance on foreign capital inflows to finance the current account deficit made it vulnerable to the withdrawal of the US Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing programme. India’s 14.5x forward price-to-earnings valuation was high, when compared to 11.9x for the Asia Pacific ex Japan market. But fast forward a year a...