Country P/E to GDP Growth Ratios: Emerging Markets Top List

We recently gathered the current P/E ratios and year-over-year GDP growth numbers for 22 countries that have trackable ETFs. For P/E ratios we used each country's major equity market index.

We then calculated the PEG ratio for the country as a whole by dividing the P/E ratio by the GDP growth. As shown below, Singapore currently has the lowest PEG (P/E/GDP) at 1.43, with a P/E of 12.69 and GDP of 8.90%. Singapore is followed by Russia, Malaysia and South Africa.

At the bottom of the list with the highest country PEG ratios are the U.S., Italy and Japan. The S&P 500 has a P/E ratio of 18.39 and GDP growth of just 2.8%. The country with the lowest P/E ratio is Sweden, but its GDP growth is 2.6%, so it is right in the middle of the pack as far as PEGs go. The country with the highest P/E by far is China, but its strong GDP growth gives it a PEG of 3.96.

click to enlarge

Comments

[lconapin]

This is a helpful chart, thank you!

[Lisa]

Why is Singapore so cheap? Could the P/E be depressed by lots of financials in the index?

[Joe Steele]

Great article.

I recently discovered Seeking Alpha and it is a treasure trove of investing ideas. Kudos!

[HedgefundAnalyst]

Uh, don't you think NOMINAL GDP growth would have been more appropriate?

[Amar Pate]

Hello, you say the current P/E ratio of Russia is 13.36 and then go on to mentiont he RSX etf. However, in the RSX prospectus it say the etf has a P/E ratio of 31.99. What can explain this major difference?