Emerging market stocks



An emerging market is defined as an economy that is progressing towards standards of market liquidity, transparency, accounting regularity, and securities regulation which are standard features of what are termed "developed markets." The term 'emerging market' dates from 1981 when Antoine W. Van Antmael, an official of the International Finance Corporation of World Bank, first coined the term. Emerging market economies encompass nearly 80% of the world's population and make up 20% of its economies.

The map figures to the left show the nations that are considered to be emerging markets.

In 1992, Farida Khambata, an official at the International Finance Corporation, coined the term "frontier markets" for nations with smaller market capitalization and less liquidity than nations classified as emerging markets.

Over time, national markets can migrate from the continuum of classifications, moving between developed, emerging, and frontier markets.

As of October 2012, emerging market stocks comprised 13.60% of the global equity market.