2 minutes to read by  RBC Emerging Markets Equity team Jan 16, 2026

We are pleased to share our RBC Emerging Markets Equity Outlook for 2026

2025 was a notable year for global markets, marked by a leadership reversal away from the U.S. to international equity and currency markets. In particular, EM equities have performed well, and in this year’s report, our EM Equity team explores the potential for this trend to continue.

Key topics for this year include:

• Macroeconomics, geopolitics, valuations, earnings, styles, sectors, and themes: we have found that focusing on the extremes makes sense in terms of top-down factors, as it can often be a powerful indicator of future performance and can help us mitigate cyclical risks.

• Developments within our five portfolio themes: these help up position our portfolio in areas of long-term structural growth, which we feel is particularly important in an environment of heightened geopolitical and trade uncertainty. Importantly, our detailed research helps us identify the most attractive ways to play each theme from an investment standpoint, and we report on the changes made in 2025.

• A deep dive on key markets across our asset class, including China, India, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, where we are seeing diverse opportunities:

  • We continue to view India as one of the most compelling long-term stories in EM. The country offers superior growth prospects given its attractive demographics, and low urbanisation and penetration rates across many areas, while from a bottom-up perspective the quality of corporates in the country really stands out. 

  • We also identify attractive opportunities across other Asian as well as Middle Eastern economies, driven by accelerating government reforms. Meanwhile, after a challenging political environment, the outlook for Latin America is improving given upcoming elections, high real rates, positive sensitivity to a weaker USD, and attractive equity valuations.

• Sectors and styles where we identify opportunities and extremes: in particular, we see Quality stocks and sectors as looking attractive.

For our full report, please contact RBCGAM-USMarketingTeam@rbc.com

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