Guest post: Asia’s north-south divide

By Benjamin Yeo of Barclays

The performance of Asian equity markets has been fairly respectable this year, in view of the many headwinds investors have experienced. Asia delivered double-digit returns in both local currency and US dollar terms, based on the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index. However, the headline return masks the divergence in terms of regional and country performance – with a big north-south divide.