We are pleased to share with you our RBC Emerging Markets Equity Outlook for 2024.
2023 has been a notable year for emerging markets equities (“EM”), and potentially the beginning of their decoupling from developed markets. While we have seen continued underperformance of China, other EM have been performing well both in terms of fundamentals and equity market returns, with strong prospects looking ahead.
In this year’s report, we reflect on key developments over the course of the last year and set out our thinking for the environment ahead. We also address the questions that have been top of mind for our clients. We cover a range of topics including macroeconomics, valuations, earnings, styles, themes and ESG reforms. While our portfolio positioning continues to be primarily driven by stock selection, we use this report to identify the extremes from a top-down perspective and increase or decrease weights at the margins.
We also review developments within our five portfolio themes. These themes help up position our portfolio in areas of long-term structural growth, which we feel is particularly important in the new environment of higher interest rates and lower growth. Importantly, our detailed research helps us identify the most attractive ways to play each theme from an investment standpoint, and we report on the updates we have made over the course of the year.
Given China’s significant weight in the MSCI EM Index and its continued underperformance this year, we dedicate a chapter to China, to assess the near-term drivers of this underperformance and our outlook for its path ahead. In particular, we review the four main concerns on China’s long-term growth trajectory: debt, deflation, decoupling, and demographics.
We also deep dive into our outlook for India where we are particularly constructive from both a top-down and bottom-up perspective, and Latin America where we are seeing positive developments and opportunities from geopolitics and commodity trends.