BRICS vs. ASEAN: what it's all about and what prospects for investors
Investments
Posted by MoneyController on 31.10.2024
- 320
- 0 Follow me
In the world, there are large organisations between states (such as the BRICS and ASEAN) that can act as a compass for international relations: but does this also apply to investors?
Another brick of globalisation: it was with this play on words that Jim O'Neill, an economist at Goldman Sachs, coined the acronym ‘BRIC’ which, with the addition of South Africa would become BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China and, precisely, South Africa. That was in 2001; more than twenty years later, that group of states does not look so much like another brick to western-style globalisation: rather, it appears as an alternative model to western globalisation; and it was precisely this topic that was the focus of the last meeting in Kazan, Russia.
Over time, the BRICS has been joined by many other countries, including Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, and many others. It is a group with a strength: it represents the largest population and economic concentration in the world. However, there is a weakness (as Stefano Feltri pointed out in his podcast ‘Revolution’): it is a heterogeneous group of states, with more or less close relations, and with very different strategic goals. From an investor's point of view it therefore seems very complicated to invest in a strategy, so to speak, BRICS.
There is also another group in the world that brings together non-Western countries: this is the Association of South East Asian Nations, known as ASEAN: its members are the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Brunei, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Two analyses by two management companies have recently appeared on ASEAN: one by Capital Group (on ‘Lamiafinanza.it’) and the other by Anh Lu, of T. Rowe Price (on ‘FONDS Professionell’).
Both analyses have in common that they focus on investment opportunities in this area, which has a population of as many as 650 million people and a GDP of around USD 2.9 trillion. This is an area that - as both Capital Group's and Anh Lu's analyses emphasise - enjoys positive demographic and economic dynamics that are in some cases intertwined: in the strategy of both companies, however, a correct selection of opportunities remains necessary, with an eye to diversification and a precise analysis of the companies included in the portfolios.
Read also:
Why does it make sense to diversify your investment portfolio?