Emerging markets: Sustainable turnaround in capital inflows?

So why have international investors been stepping up their investments in the emerging markets again of late? Is this development driven by fundamental improvements in the emerging markets themselves, or does it reflect an at least temporary rebound in risk appetite on the international financial markets? Looking at the latest economic indicators such as purchasing manager indices and “hard” data on foreign trade and industrial production in the three major emerging market regions Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, the broad picture is of a sideways movement – i.e. neither a significant acceleration nor a significant slowdown in growth.

Russia is one of the few exceptions. Eastern Europe's largest economy has been in the throes of recession since last year, with gross domestic product contracting by 3.7% in real terms in 2015. At the moment, the economy appears to be stabilizing at least, with GDP in the second quarter down by only around half a percentage point year-on-year. Industrial production would appear to have bottomed out and the past few months have brought a return to a moderate increase in real wages, which dipped by more than 9% last year. All in all, we expect growth to edge back into marginally positive territory by the end of the year. The average growth rate for 2016 is, nevertheless, expected to remain negative at around 0.6%.