The Frontier and Smaller Emerging Markets team at Fiera Capital have been investing in the countries of the Middle East and Africa for many years. Our global philosophy when looking at Emerging equity markets is that political, economic, and stock market reforms create economic growth. The last five years of evidence in the Middle Eastern and African markets provide a clear illustration of just how significant those reforms can be.
Most of sub-Saharan Africa has been enveloped in a negative reform spiral that has both produced economic growth rates substantially below their potential and a dwindling of their equity markets to insignificant sizes in both a global and local context.
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