India's private equity market offers opportunities for investors who are focused, patient, opportunistic and agile. Success requires being familiar both with the economy's internal currents and target companies as money is abundant but trust is harder to come by.
Allowing private debt to rise has been an easy short-term solution, but the countries of Western Europe, the United States and Japan now have to address the internal conflicts hidden by rising debt. Taking corrective action earlier would be easier while creditors are still friendly, but a broader financial crisis may be needed to spur such action.
The ongoing trends of urbanization and wealth generation in Asia, and the investment opportunities these trends create, make Asia worth a serious look by investors. Increasing consumption trends are in their infancy and may last 10 to 20 more years.
Remain diversified within the fixed income sector, allocating assets to international and high-yield bonds where appropriate, for example, to help smooth investment performance. Opportunities exist for these sectors to perform comparatively better within the context of a rising U.S. interest rate environment.
Analysis shows the inflation hedging benefits of long-term investments in commodities, which have a low correlation over time with equities. Diversification with a broad basket of commodities is best to smooth out the volatilities of individual commodities, such as oil or gold.
A moderate level of economic confidence has returned to a number of segments of the economy. If the current trajectory of confidence indicators remains intact, as we believe it will, 2011 is likely to be a reasonably constructive year for both economic growth and risky asset performance.
Researchers examine the trade, economic and financial linkages between China and the rest of the world and consider the implications of those linkages if growth in Chinese gross domestic product should slow in the future.
Investors and consumers typically adopt a wait and see attitude toward investing and spending in the nascent days of a recovery. That timidity should be history by now, says the author, who explores the reasons behind the ongoing lack of confidence.
The authors, in travels with four clients and friends, explore the business side of Africa, conducting 20 meetings with companies and local organizations in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. These countries are all close to the banks of the Zambezi River, and their fates are linked to it.
The intent of this piece is to communicate the economic indicators that help to monitor in real time whether approaching deflation or accelerating inflation is on the horizon.