LONDON: Emerging markets have surged on the prospect that coronavirus vaccines will become widely available soon, but analysts think the rally is overplayed given the risks from slower rollouts for some economies that could delay their recoveries.
"I do think the vaccine 'relief rally' for EM is overdone and is more sentiment than reality driven," said Beth Morrissey, managing partner of emerging markets-focused Kleiman International Consultants. "Clearly, if emerging economies cannot manage to have a majority of the population receive vaccinations, the impact on consumer spending because of continued need for partial lockdowns and subdued travel activities will be more severe than so far priced in," said Tatjana Puhan, managing director at asset manager TOBAM.
"Even if you look at India, which in recent years has made vast strides in healthcare and pharma, how can they possibly transport a vaccine that needs refrigeration, not even considering the ones that need to be stored at 94 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, across 3.28 million square kilometres quickly enough to inoculate enough of the 1.38 billion population?" said Morrissey.
Russia, along with China, appear well placed with the only major home-grown vaccine research programmes in emerging markets, Domjan wrote.The poorest parts of emerging markets should be covered by the COVAX global distribution scheme, co-led by the World Health Organization.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.