Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Aging Populations and Globalisation

There are a number of reasons why there is a strong argument over the medium to long-term to invest in what are commonly known as emerging markets. One of them is that these countries - like Brazil, Malaysia and India have younger populations - populations that can produce more goods, that contribute to GDP more so than older ones, and populations that are working to make it up the ladder and accumulating assets. This is one of the reasons why over the coming 50 years, these young populations are expected to contribute greatly to the world's growth. Furthermore, they are expected to own an increasing amount of the world's assets. Trade between the faster growing countries is a key element of keeping both sides in check - younger poulations produce and buy assets, and older ones consume and sell assets. These are generalisations but there are clearly differences betwen the Europe and the US of today (older) versus the Europe and the US of 50 years ago (younger). The fact that this is the case, serves to contrast also what might be happening in the younger regions of today.

No comments: