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The global financial crisis in 2008 stung many; it was a case where turmoil and crisis affected markets globally.⁴ However, over long stretches an internationally diversified portfolio opens you up for less risk of a bad outcome.⁴ While global markets are somewhat correlated with one another, individual markets tend to move in sync with sectors that dominate their economies.⁴ Therefore, having broad international exposure helps to diversify your sector bets to reduce risk.⁴

Even Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has increased their exposure to global investments to reduce risk.⁵ In 2015, when Bursa Malaysia was performing poorly, EPF’s global assets, which accounted for a quarter of the fund’s total assets, generated 40% of its total income.⁵ This income from international investments compensated for the poor performance of EPF’s assets in Malaysia.⁵

According to EPF, people have a perception or fear that investing abroad is riskier than in Malaysia when in actual fact it’s not.5 EPF says it makes sense to invest internationally because there is more diversification.⁵

Investing globally also helps to diversify your geopolitical risks.⁶ Episodes like the Chinese government banning stock sales by major shareholders after the Chinese stock market plunge in 2015, as well as Brexit and Donald Trump winning the US presidential election in 2016, for example, can result in volatility in certain markets.⁶ As such, diversifying your investments across a range of global markets may help reduce your risk.⁶

While the US has long been the world’s largest economy and has set the tone for global markets together with Western Europe historically, it doesn’t necessarily mean that is the case today. While US stocks may have provided higher returns than global equities in aggregate over the past several years, the best performing stock market in each of the past 30 years have been outside the US.⁷

Historically, the performance of international and US stocks are cyclical; one typically outperforms the other for several years

before the cycle rotates.⁷ While recent performance has favoured US stocks, the cyclical pattern of performance means international markets will take the lead again.⁷ With projections from the International Monetary Fund forecasting US GDP growth at 2.3% and 2.5% in 2017 and 2018 respectively and Europe at 1.7% in 2017 and 1.6% in 2018, Asia is expected to grow at 6.⁴% led by China and India⁸; therefore emerging and developing Asia may potentially offer better odds for investors.

Some investors believe that they can gain sufficient foreign exposure indirectly by investing in multinationals.⁴ For example, a third of aggregate revenues for the S&P 500 index of US companies are derived abroad.⁴ But investing solely in the S&P 500 would mean you would lose out on the opportunity to generate higher returns from a broader array of companies located all over the world.⁴ As of June 2017, US equities were up about 8%. But better returns could have been found elsewhere with India stocks up 19% and China stocks up 23%.⁴

In addition, stocks of multinationals with international exposure can sometimes be highly correlated to the performance of the overall domestic equities market.⁷ Highly correlated stocks in a portfolio may indicate a lack of diversification.⁷ Therefore, multinationals like those on the S&P 500 are not always good replacements for international equities for diversification purposes.⁷

The three main areas of concern when it comes to investing and risk are: political, demographic and financial risks posed by excessive debt.⁹

Political risks come in many forms. Changes in government that result in polarisation because of representative parties can be devastating for economies.⁹ In Asia, politics have not been a destabilising force with the exception of Thailand, as well as India, where the government has made sweeping reforms for the better.⁹ Compare this to the state of the US and UK administrations, it is fair to say that Asia’s political environment presents no higher risk than the developed markets.⁹

Structural long-term challenges brought about by demographic change is another area of risk investors should consider.⁹ In the developed world, the long-term risk of declining population growth and ageing societies is real.⁹ In contrast, Asia’s

population on average remains young and growing, providing Asia with a vibrant and growing middle class with greater resources to propel domestic consumption.⁹

The OECD forecasts that by 2030, Asia will represent 66% of the global middle class population and 59% of middle class consumption.⁹

Another key risk for Asia has been debt but the good news is Asia’s debt levels are now manageable.⁹ Foreign short-term loans represent low levels in absolute terms and also relative to non-Asian emerging markets.⁹

Proclamations of China’s economic demise as a result of slower growth, the rise in total debt and potential credit issues from the decline in “old economy” industries like coal and steel ignores the booming contribution that the service sector and consumption are making towards GDP growth.⁹ Even under conservative forecasts, China’s growth is still expected to create an economy the size of South Korea, Canada or Spain every two to three years.¹¹

In fact, China has major structural growth drivers across a range of sectors including travel, technology, consumption, wealth protection and health care.⁹ The services sector is growing fast as well.⁹ Labour moving from low-end manufacturing into service is also a healthy transition.⁹

Returns on Chinese equity are also rising from a combination of significant growth in high return sectors such as technology and consumption, margin increases thanks to benign commodity prices, and structural demand growth from a growing middle class.⁹

Not quite. While Asia may often be grouped together with other emerging markets like Russia, South Africa, Brazil, Turkey and Eastern Europe, it is a far more different market with a combination of emerging and developed economies that is generally less volatile than emerging market assets.¹⁰

Asia is also a region characterised by current account surpluses as well as having some of the most efficient and skilled workforces in the world.⁹

In essence Asia encompasses 48 countries with diverse characteristics, which means markets tend to perform differently.¹⁰ In a market comprised of matured economies like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore to emerging giants driving global growth in the form of China and India to the ASEAN region expected to grow at 5% in 2017 and 2018, the offsetting nature of their performances means that returns from the region as a whole is generally more steady.¹⁰

Asia’s position as the driver of global economy is a result of several key factors. The region’s economic development has given rise to a sizeable middle class population, which in turn is contributing to growth in “new economy” sectors such as consumption, healthcare and technology.¹⁰ It is expected that this growing middle class in Asia will drive increasing levels of consumption in the years ahead.¹² According to some estimates, emerging Asia’s middle class spending will far surplus that of North America, Europe and the rest of the world at over US$30 trillion by 2030.¹²

Increased fiscal stimulus and spending on infrastructure in Asia will bolster growth in the region.¹⁰ Reform agendas including China’s rebalancing of the economy which should lead to sustainable growth, India’s structural reforms to help long-term

growth prospects, Indonesia’s expansion in capital spending to sustain economic growth, and Korea’s corporate governance reforms to pave the way for better shareholder returns will also drive growth.¹⁰ Forecasts expect Asia to enjoy higher GDP growth in the 6% region through 2018 compared to the rest of the world.¹⁰

Even though Asia is driving global growth, the region is underrepresented in equity benchmarks.¹³ This is apparent from the discrepancy between the region’s lower weight in the MSCI AC World Index compared to its larger share of world market capitalisation.¹³ With representation of Asian equities in major global indices likely to rise as markets like China continue to open their doors to investment,¹⁰ interest from international investors should rise implying potential appreciation ahead.¹³