As noted in our reviews of Asian Governance and GDP Data Quality, Asian GDP is bigger than that of Europe, the Americas and Africa combined. Asia accounts for well over half of global GDP. And Asian GDP growth has accounted for almost 70% of global growth over the past decade. So, one might assume Asia should comprise over half of a global investment portfolio, by value...

This Thought, (the third in our Asian Portfolio series) reviews which Asian countries remain as candidates for investment, after removing those with poor Governance and GDP Data Quality problems. The answer thrown up by this analysis is that Asia should probably occupy a much smaller percent of investment than the 50%+ suggested by size and growth alone. The problem with Asia is that this vast geographical space (however defined) includes many countries you probably wouldn't want to live or work in, and on whose data you cannot rely.

The table below shows those Asian countries with both reasonable GDP Data Quality and reasonable Governance. All Asian countries not meeting the World Economics thresholds for Governance and Data Quality have been removed. Only 43% of Asian countries remain in the list. And many of the larger Asian countries have been removed including China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, and Vietnam.