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WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 25 -- Eight of the ten best-performing equity markets of 1993 were in developing countries, according to the International Finance Corporation's (IFC) Emerging Markets Data Base group. The Emerging Markets Data Base is the world's leading source of information on emerging stock markets. It tracks 25 emerging markets and over 1,300 stocks in Asia, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East and publishes weekly and monthly indexes. IFC is the private sector investment arm of the World Bank. Poland's stock market ranked first, with a phenomenal 717 percent increase in dollar terms, followed by Turkey with a 211 percent gain. The Philippines' stock market, with growth of 152 percent, took third place. At a press conference in IFC's headquarters in Washington, D.C., Daniel F. Adams, IFC's Vice President for Capital Markets, noted that many of the top performing markets were in countries undergoing important macro-economic and political adjustments conducive to growth, including priva
tization of state enterprises and liberalization of trade, foreign investment, and financial services. Technological and disclosure and regulatory improvements in stock exchanges also contributed to the performance of markets in these countries, as they promoted wider participation by both domestic and foreign investors. Taking fourth place in the best-performing stock markets was Indonesia, which rose 112 percent. The markets in Malaysia and Thailand both gained 107 percent, and Zimbabwe and Pakistan increased 102 percent and 94 percent respectively. According to IFC, all twenty-four emerging stock markets considered investable by IFC -- markets open to foreign investors -- showed greater returns in 1993 than the Standard & Poor's 500. Solid 1993 performances follow large gains in 1992 and a five-year mean annual return of over 25 percent for the IFC Investable Composite index, compared with less than 15 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500. (more) Press Release No. 94/52, page 2 of 3 Regionally, Europe and
the Middle East grew by 112 percent, according to IFC's investable index. Asia gained 94 percent and Latin America increased 56 percent. IFC's Composite index of emerging stock markets finished the year up 75 percent. "The performance of emerging stock markets has been impressive, but international investor confidence will continue to grow only with further improvements in regulatory regimes, transparent market practices, adoption of international audit and accounting standards, and efficient clearing and settlement arrangements," according to Mr. Adams. IFC is working closely with regulatory agencies in several developing countries to achieve these objectives. Even the world's worst performing stock markets in 1993 all registered gains, reflecting the strong performance of equity markets worldwide. The ten worst-performers included six developed markets and four emerging markets. The United States' Standard & Poor's 500 led the worst-ten list, with a gain of only 7.5 percent for the year. Despite double-dig
it growth, Venezuela, Greece, Korea, and Peru made the worst-performing list, with 14 percent, 17 percent, 20 percent, and 21 percent returns respectively. IFC's Emerging Markets Data Base group will publish its annual Factbook in April 1994 with information on more than 100 stock markets in developing countries, including new exchanges in China, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. (30)
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