During the boom years, emerging market governments were buying up foreign currencies left and right, but now emerging markets and their exchange traded funds (ETFs) could be at risk from the deluge of foreign cash.
Investments from overseas inundated emerging markets with $469 billion this year, which brings it to a total of $1.5 trillion since 2005, or a record twofold compared to prior three years, reports Simon Kennedy and Bill Faries for International Herald Tribune.
The strong global expansion allowed for borrowing at interest rates near record lows, which poured money into economies with low-cost labor and valuable commodities that showed prospects of high returns. Foreign capital allowed for such benefits as generating growth, tax revenues, jobs and infrastructure.
The problem was finding the balance between inflation, asset prices and currency value against the benefits of foreign capital.
Edward Seaga for Jamaica Gleaner offers a plan for an emerging market country. He writes that by increasing interest rates, it would discourage the locals from buying foreign currencies to invest in overseas accounts.