Fund managers are gloomier about emerging markets than for many years after last week’s currency rout from Argentina to Russia.
The immediate problems in Argentina on top of the under-lying concerns about the slowdown in Chinese economic growth and the impact of US monetary tapering have left managers worried that the emerging markets sell-off could accelerate.
“Be afraid. China is trying to hit unsustainably high GDP growth rates by generating -bigger and bigger credit and investment bubbles. Its economy is becoming progressively unhinged, and it’s hard to see how it won’t end badly,” said Mike Riddell, a bond fund manager at M&G Investments who is shorting the Brazilian, South African and Turkish currencies.