After the success of BRICs – that’s Brazil, Russia,
India and China - as an opportunity for investors over the
past decade, MINTs - Mexico,
Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey - could provide similarly
high returns in the coming decade, says Fidelity International.

The asset management company says Indonesia is the most BRIC-like of
these emerging economies, because it has a large population of 245 million,
dominated by young people with rising disposable incomes. Its analysts also
point to the Indonesian government’s economic goal of becoming one of the
world’s 10 largest economies by 2025, stated in December last year.

To illustrate the performance of some of the MINTs, data
from MSCI Barra showed that total returns – capital growth plus reinvested
dividends – for Turkey were
9.7 per cent in the 10 years to the end of 2010; for Mexico,
returns were 16.2 per cent, and Indonesia put in a
sizzling 26.7 per cent. For the BRICs, the returns were 17.82 per cent in the
decade to 2010.

Turkey
represents a promising investment opportunity, says Fidelity, because its
economy has recovered strongly since the global downturn, growing by an
estimated 8.1 per cent in 2010. Reforms and policies enacted after its own
economic crisis in 2001 are also starting to bear fruit. As a result, the
Turkish banking system survived the global crisis relatively unscathed, and the
country’s public finances are in better shape than those of many Eurozone
nations.

African countries are usually seen as a risky investment
because of perceptions of conflict, famine and poverty, but Fidelity says Nigeria’s large
population and abundance of natural resources are starting to boost economic
growth and investment in the nation. The recent re-election of Goodluck
Jonathan as President suggests stability and the continuation of reform, says
the asset management firm.

Finally, Mexico’s
economy should grow because it is exporting more goods to the US as China’s labour costs become less
competitive. Fidelity says Mexico’s
economic strengths and weaknesses lie in the fact that it is so closely tied to
its neighbour to the north. 80 per cent of Mexico’s
exports go to the US, and
the country receives substantial US investment.

MINTs may just have the potential to be as rewarding for
investors over the next ten years as BRICs have been in the past ten, said the
firm in a statement.