Merrill Lynch sees risk and opportunity in MENA

ENAR

International investors have been shifting part of their attention from emerging markets to those classified as frontier markets. This attention is in the form of cash, mind you, and thus investment advisers have every reason to show their expertise in assessing frontier markets and their risk/reward potentials. Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch this week did just that and published a primer on 42 frontier markets in Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMEA). Of the 42 economies, the analysts highlighted six countries as offering the “best risk/reward,” among them four MENA countries: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The analysts determined that these were the best investment opportunities by correlating strong GDP growth projections and macro stability with a relatively large market size. On the bad end of the risk/reward map were countries offering low growth when compared with the risk. This quarter of the map included,