WS Guinness Asian Equity Income

The Asia Pacific region includes both developed and emerging economies, and its population – half of the world's total – is younger than that of the developed world and getting richer. While western economies struggle to sustain economic growth, it is Asia's dynamism, expanding population and increasing wealth that will shape our economic future.

Once dominated by commodities and export manufacturing for the developed markets of the US and Europe, Asia has mobilised its resources for the production of not only raw materials but also the full range of manufactured goods (from cheap clothing to top-of-the-range electronics). The region's success in focusing on industrialisation and steadily increasing the value of goods being produced has brought higher wages and household incomes. Rising personal wealth underpins an expanding consumer economy with many more economic participants and higher volumes of transactions. The benefits over time have been reduced volatility in regional economic performance as the rise of the Asian consumer puts the region on a slower but more self-sustaining growth path. From an investment perspective, there has been a flowering of consumer discretionary and services businesses to cater to the growing consumer class. Asia is now no longer simply the workshop of the world, but with its growing affluence is now a key marketplace for cars, phones, clothing, and luxury goods, as well as for health care and financial services.