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 underlying 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.