Emerging markets are countries with active and liquid equity markets that are transitioning towards a more advanced, industrialized, and technologically sophisticated economy, with faster growth and increasingly robust institutions.
Emerging markets are a subset of emerging economies that have liquid equity markets of sufficient size to be included in indices provided by major index providers like MSCI.
Emerging markets have changed rapidly in the past two decades, now generating two-thirds of global GDP growth, and are leading innovation in strategic sectors. Countries like China, Korea, Taiwan and India have become key to the supply chains in semiconductors, AI hardware, autos and renewable energy.
In equity markets, one of the most widely used classifications is the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which groups large and mid cap stocks across major emerging economies. As of data updated to the end of March 2026, MSCI EM includes 24 countries:
Americas: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru.
Europe/Middle East/Africa: Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Qatar, South Africa, Turkey, United Arab Emirates.
Asia: China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand.
These index classifications are index provider constructs rather than formal economic definitions, but they anchor how most global investors talk about and allocate to emerging markets. Emerging markets are characterized by a high degree of dispersion – in the level of development, the institutional framework, economic policy, level of reliance on natural resources and political culture. This heterogeneity creates a fertile environment for active management.
Robeco emerging markets equities strategies aim to beat the performance of the MSCI Emerging Markets index by leveraging this performance dispersion. Portfolio managers approach this by making discretionary decisions about which equities to own based on country selection and individual company fundamental analysis, complemented by quantitative models.
Emerging markets equities are still relatively small in terms of market capitalization compared to developed markets. For example, in the MSCI All World index, which includes more than 2,500 companies from 23 developed markets (MSCI World) and 24 emerging markets (MSCI EM) in a single large and mid cap index, emerging markets account for around 11–12% of market capitalization at the end of March 2026.
See also
Discover emerging opportunities
Discover emerging opportunities by investing in the diverse and fast-growing dynamics of emerging markets.