Читать книгу The Emerging Markets Handbook - Pran Tiku - Страница 21

World Bank economist Antoine van Agtmael coined the term emerging market in the 1980s. He argued that although these countries suffered from governance and transparency issues, they represented above average growth rates as they were transitioning towards better economic and financial conditions. Agtmael published this thesis in his 1984 book, Emerging Securities Markets.

There were other early proponents of international and emerging markets, such as Sir John Templeton, who started international and emerging market mutual funds in the early 1980s. Templeton’s emerging markets mutual fund, run by the legendary Dr. Mark Mobius, is still actively traded today. In the early days, this was one of the few emerging market opportunities for ordinary investors.

In 1999, the first index of emerging markets (later acquired by Standard & Poor’s) was developed. As investing in these markets became more profitable, investors became interested – slowly at first, but with greater enthusiasm as years progressed. Firms such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs began using their vast market influence to secure investments for new funds dedicated to emerging markets, and Goldman Sachs garnered further interest by publishing their well-known papers: ‘Dreaming With BRICs’ in 1999 and ‘Building Better Global Economic BRICs’ in 2001.

This catchy acronym, BRIC, referred to four countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China. The overall theory was that these countries represented above average opportunities based on demographics, growing consumption, technological innovation and rising living standards. The timing for emerging market investing and the idea of BRICs was perfect as the recession and technology burst of 2000 had just ended.

Investors’ animal spirits were rising again. China, India and Brazil in particular were in the news for spectacular growth that exceeded that of the US and Europe by two-to-three times. At the time, Japan was still stumbling through its decades-long recession. Goldman Sachs created a special BRIC fund and BRIC50 fund, both of which became major hits with investors. The influx of capital to all four BRIC countries multiplied.