WASHINGTON, D.C., May 6—The International Finance Corporation (IFC) today released the 1997 Emerging Stock Markets Factbook. Now in its eleventh annual edition, the Factbook has become a key reference on emerging stock markets for investors, businesspersons, academics, and journalists.
The 1997 Factbook provides detailed market statistics and commentary on markets in the 44 countries covered by the IFC indexes. In addition, it provides summary data on another 25 developing countries, as well as overviews of emerging market economies and a detailed directory of emerging stock market exchanges around the world.
According to the Factbook, emerging stock markets in 1996 posted their first positive collective return since the boom of 1993. Emerging markets swept the top 15 spots for annual performance measured in dollar terms from a list of 76 world stock markets with the top five performers for 1996 being Bangladesh (up 196%), Russia (up 156%), Venezuela (up 132%), Hungary (up 95%), and China (up 89%).
Another highlight from 1996 were the new countries that came on the international investment scene. "Foremost among these were Egypt, Morocco, and Russia," according to Robert Shakotko, manager of IFC's Emerging Markets Data Base. "These markets have caught the eye of investors, and provided very good results in 1996 in terms of strong price performance and increasing market size and liquidity." Details on all of Egypt, Morocco and Russia are included in this year's Factbook.
The 1997 Factbook further reveals that by the end of 1996, 71 emerging markets reported a total market value of nearly $1.6 trillion, about 11% of world market capitalization of $20.2 trillion, and total trading activity also around $1.6 trillion, about 12% of world stock trades. While a net $45.7 billion of foreign portfolio flows were important catalysts in emerging stock markets' growth in 1996, the Key Trends section concludes that their growth is primarily driven by domestic forces of the savings' supply and demand dynamic. The publication, broadly followed for its comprehensive, accurate and detailed information on emerging stock markets, also has chapters devoted to the results and characteristics of the IFC Indexes, which are widely-used benchmarks of emerging stocks markets' performance. . IFC is a member of the World Bank Group and is the leading multilateral source of equity and loan financing for private sector projects in developing countries. It is also the world's leading publisher of data on s
tock markets in developing countries.
The 1997 Emerging Stock Markets Factbook is available for US$100 directly from the IFC and or from the World Bank Book stores. For book order requests, contact:
Emerging Markets Data Base
International Finance Corporation
2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20433
Tel: (202) 473-9520
Fax: (202) 974-4386
or
The World Bank Book Store
Tel: (202) 473-1155
Fax: (202) 676-0581
For press copies, contact:
Mr. Vincent Yemoh
Corporate Relations Unit
International Finance Corporation
Tel: (202) 473-7711
Fax: (202) 974-4384
