Recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased their global growth expectations for both 2017 and 2018. According to the report, “The global upswing in economic activity is strengthening, with global growth projected to rise to 3.6 percent in 2017 and 3.7 percent in 2018.” The report also singled out “upward revisions in the euro area, Japan, emerging Asia, emerging Europe, and Russia.” The IMF also stated, “For policymakers, the welcome cyclical pickup in global activity provides an ideal window of opportunity to tackle key challenges—namely to boost potential output while ensuring its benefits are broadly shared.”

Dr. John Blank, Chief Equity Strategist at Zacks, recently polled other Chief Strategists regarding their views on global growth in several different regions and their views on future stock returns in those areas. The chart below shows the results of the poll.

John, goes into some excellent detail about ETF’s in these markets and also introduces some picks he believes are nicely positioned to take advantage of the growing global markets. To read that article, please click here.

Given these growth expectations, we identified four highly ranked mutual funds that have sizable exposure to these top growth areas, no load fees, are relatively inexpensive, and have posted sizable gains year to date.  

Our Picks

Ivy Emerging Markets Equity (IPOIX – Free Report), a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) seeks long-term capital growth. Consideration of current income is secondary principal objective. The fund invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes, in equity securities (including common stock, preferred stock and securities convertible into common stock) of companies such as those whose securities are traded mainly on markets in the Pacific region, organized under the laws of a Pacific region country or issued by any company with more than half of its business in the Pacific region. The fund pays dividends and capital gains annually.