World equity markets have produced strong returns year-to-date, driven by declining interest rates and rising growth stocks. Despite double-digit gains for the MSCI World index, geopolitical gloom, notably trade wars and Brexit, hangs over investors, economies and the share prices of more economically-sensitive companies.

• Emerging Markets Debt is a sizable and growing asset class offering much higher yields than traditional fixed income
• Given idiosyncrasies and exploitable inefficiencies, the asset class lends itself to active management
• Mondrian’s systematic and consistent approach to portfolio construction has yielded strong long- term results
• Current valuations, especially in local currency Emerging Markets Debt, are attractive.

The period since the financial crisis has been unprecedented in both the duration of the bull market but also the extreme low levels of volatility. As John Authers of the Financial Times recently pointed out, 2017 was the ‘most serenely positive year for world markets in history’.