• China's GDP growth has fallen significantly. Here's why it matters in the U.S.

  • China's commerce ministry says its exports face 'severe challenges' because of economic problems in its key Western markets

  • Emerging markets bond funds offer generous yields, and expected growth rates in these countries are high. Plus, there is potential for their currencies to appreciate against the dollar. Here are a number of ways to invest in emerging markets debt

  • By relocating some parts of international supply chains, globalization has been affecting the price of goods, job patterns, and wages almost everywhere. It is changing the structure of individual economies in ways that affect different groups within those countries differently. In the advanced economies, it is redistributing employment opportunities and incomes

  • Traffic is intense. Modestly powered taxis compete daily for space on streets crowded with trucks, motorcycles, standing-room-only buses and sleek new luxury cars. This is the sound of an emerging market economy that, while it may not always turn in 9 percent gross domestic product growth, seems destined to put up at least 5 percent annually thanks to demographics and an improving living standard

  • Emerging markets are like those giant slices of double-mud chocolate-brownie cake offered to you by restaurant servers at the end of your meal. You run the risk of a severe stomachache later, but they sound so good it's hard to resist.

  • A new United Nations report predicts a 40 percent drop in foreign investments in Latin America this year. I hope I'm wrong about this, but the fall in foreign funds may be even steeper.

  • Exchange-traded funds that track China had been high-flyers over the past few years. This year has been a different story, featuring a double-digit percentage drop that has now run into a mild late-year bounce

  • Economic growth in India slowed during the third quarter falling to 6.9 percent from 7.7 percent for the previous quarter

  • Of the rapidly growing BRIC countries Russia has always been a sort of odd man out. While the others have registered double-digit or near double-digit growth for years, the Russian economy has grown at a much more moderate pace. But lately, Russia's economy has been benefiting from what many other nations, including the United States, are struggling with

  • Since the present Communist Party leadership took power, fresh market-oriented liberalization has been minor. Such policies have been wound down and supplanted by renewed state intervention. In privatization, prices, even foreign trade and investment, the PRC was heading away from the market well before the financial crisis erupted.

  • Because of the volatility and instability often associated with less-mature foreign financial markets as well as potentially undependable and non-standardized financial reporting, investing in stocks through foreign exchanges turns off many U.S. investors. Another option is investing in U.S. companies that rely on exports -- to Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere -- to boost their bottom lines

  • Although emerging markets have taken a dive lately, the long-term outlook for these fast-growing countries remains favorable for investors, especially as growth in much of the developed world stalls. Investors should consider folding high-growth global exposure into a balanced portfolio

  • Jim O'Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, singled out the four BRIC countries in 2001, but now he's decided to drop the term BRIC. That's because he's adding Mexico, South Korea, Turkey, and Indonesia to the previous BRIC countries, and referring to the group as 'growth markets.' Should this new distinction matter to the individual investor?

  • There have been big headlines in recent weeks about projections that Brazil will become the world's fifth-largest economy in five years, and that Latin America in general will become a new global economic star. But there are little-known data that should raise questions about such optimistic forecasts

  • Even amid global uncertainty, emerging markets funds have surged in 2010. The average emerging market fund gained about 19 percent during the third quarter, according to Morningstar. U.S. stock funds gained an annualized 12 percent over the same time period. Here are U.S. News's best emerging markets funds for the long term.

  • Lingering effects of the global economic slowdown are forcing vulnerable governments across the developing world to take actions that can provoke bursts of public outrage, particularly in countries where trouble was already brewing beneath the surface.

  • Recently, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) -- the club of the world's richest democracies -- formally invited Chile to become a member. Chile had applied for membership two years ago. Chile will become the first South American member of the OECD

  • In 2003, a report authored by Goldman Sachs economists popularized the term BRICs -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- to describe a whole new category of emerging-market powerhouse. The report argued that with sound political leadership and relative international stability, the BRIC economies would together outpace the original G6 industrialized nations in dollar terms by 2040 -- a fundamental shift in the global balance of power. Since then, these four countries have assumed ever-greater importance in the international investment community's collective imagination.

  • The financial crisis has left few corners of the global economy unscathed, but many of the loudest cries reflecting the deepest pain are largely ignored. These are the cries of the world's poorest citizens whose suffering is not measured in battered portfolios and retirement plans but in their daily survival

  • 'Will 2011 be the dawn of the Latin American decade?' asked the headline of a Standard & Poor's webcast. When I saw it, I wondered whether the firm was making a big blunder, or I was missing the biggest economic story in the region. The headline was only the latest of several optimistic reports about Latin America's economies. All of a sudden, Latin America is becoming an emerging economic star

  • Forget the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Larry Seruma, chief investment officer of Nile Capital Management, says many retail investors are missing a tremendous opportunity for growth in Africa. Here are Seruma's reasons for investing in Africa

  • With the latest forecast that China could take the reins as the world's largest economy as soon as 2030, experts are debating how its growth should be measured and if it will indeed outmuscle the United States. Regardless, China's powerful and growing influence on the world economy cannot be ignored. So, should you reserve a spot in your portfolio for China?

  • First things first: emerging markets stock funds are still a volatile asset class. But if you break up the globe into different regions, the countries these funds invest in rank among the most attractive long-term prospects. Why?

  • Brazil, India and even China will not be able, by themselves, to correct the dysfunctions that produced the global crisis. But it is true that the economic power of these three countries can mitigate its negative consequences. ...

  • If a Martian had descended on earth last week and read the headlines, he would have thought that Latin America is the world's new superpower.

  • The good news is that Latin American economies are expected to do reasonably well. But economists warn that unless they become more competitive, their recovery will look like a chicken's flight -- they get a few feet off the ground, and fall

  • There is still promise abroad in 2010, yet don't get carried away. Dynamic years are often been followed by dismal ones in the quixotic world investment mix. It increasingly makes sense to include international stocks or mutual funds as part of your personal portfolio, but you should do so in moderation.

  • The nearly 30 percent rise in the price of oil and other raw materials over the past month raises a big question: Will commodity-dependent populist governments in Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador get a second wind? They are certainly hoping for that to happen.

  • Calling on the United States and China to do more together has an undeniable logic. Both Washington and Beijing are destined to fail if they attempt to confront the world's problems alone, and the current bilateral relationship is not getting the job done. But elevating the bilateral relationship is not the solution. It will raise expectations for a level of partnership that cannot be met and exacerbate the very real differences that exist between Washington and Beijing.