After another torrid year, can emerging markets rediscover their mojo?

After another torrid year, can emerging markets rediscover their mojo?

LONDON - The spectre of higher interest rates in the United States, slowing growth in China and a strong dollar have this year hammered emerging markets already reeling from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Even money managers whose job it is to convince clients to buy emerging assets admit 2022 doesn't look much easier. "The hurdle for investors to be flooding back into emerging markets is that much higher than it was," said Paul Greer, an emerging debt fund manager at Fidelity, citing tighter U.S. monetary policy and the pandemic's hit to developing countries' public finances. Then there are the low COVID-19 vaccination rates and the unpredictability of policies and politics in the likes of Turkey - whose currency has collapsed this year - and Latin America, further denting confidence. Chinese government regulatory clampdowns have helped wipe $1 trillion off local stocks while property developer Evergrande's debt default - China's biggest - was behind a 30% slump in Chinese high-yield bonds. Overall, emerging market equities have lost 7% in 2021. That stands in sharp contrast to the S&P 500's 22% surge, the MSCI World's 13% gain, and the banner year for almost every other asset class as cheap cash