Sunday, April 23, 2017

India, EMs outlook far superior than “rotten western democracies”


Marc Faber the author of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, is of the view that India will outperform the US over a 5-10 year period. In a conversation with ET Now Faber said, “India has done very well in 2017 and is grossly outperforming the US. Even if India grows at only 5%, it is still better than the US, Europe”. Citing a PwC report he said, India would be the second largest economy by 2050. “Outlook for the Chinese, Indian economy for emerging markets, in general, is far superior to the outlook in our rotten western democracies,” he told the business news channel.

He also suggested in investing into commodity stocks given the low prices of commodities. Marc Faber preferred to invest in commodity-related plays over financial assets. However, Faber cautioned that each commodity has to be analyzed separately. He also pointed out to a positive outlook for copper, as he said that the shift to electric cars will increase demand for the metal. Among other stocks, Marc Faber named real estate, travel & tourism and hotels as the sectors he likes. He said he sees a huge opportunity in real estate on the trend of buying 2nd homes, and added that domestic and international tourism will bring potential for hotel chains, travel companies.

Earlier this year, Marc Faber has suggested that the newly-elected US President Donald Trump’s policies are rather good for the emerging markets, contrary to the popular sentiment that such policies will restrict trade from the emerging economies and hurt them. “Everyone makes a big hoopla on the US markets going up this year,” Marc Faber had said in a TV interview to CNBC’s Squawk Box. “We are up 4.66%, (while) Hong Kong is up 9%, Singapore is up 9%, Mexico is up 6%, and Brazil and Argentina are up 20%,” he had said to drive home the point that Trump’s policies were “quite good” for the foreign markets.