In 2016 I joined a group of professional investors who travelled to Bangladesh to study emerging markets. On leaving the exchange in Dhaka we had to squeeze past some people tending to a dead body in the street.
In the evening, as we sat in the hotel bar, we suddenly saw ourselves on television. The bartender translated the newscast. There was no mention of anyone dying. The story read: “Foreign investors seen visiting Dhaka exchange — market moves 10 per cent higher.”
This highlights the perils of investing in emerging markets and how easily they can be moved. But the potential for enhanced returns is also there, of course, and we might expect even faster growth with the world in recovery mode.