Should you invest in emerging markets right now?

Emerging markets are the place to be if you want to make the best possible returns in the future. At least, that's been the received wisdom for a while now. But is it true?

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After all, that's where populations are growing; where the West's manufacturing is migrating too; and where new middle classes are emerging. Right? Maybe. Or maybe not. The latest Barclays Equity Gilt Study suggests something rather different. Population growth is not much higher in emerging markets than in developed ones, for example, so the idea that demographics can drive growth in the latter but not the former holds no water.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.