Mexican, Australian ETFs Top 10-Year Returns

Over the past ten years, exchange-traded fund investors have been on the money to invest in overseas markets. Returns have been aided by a falling dollar and strong export growth.

Nine of the ten ETFs with the biggest yearly returns tracked overseas markets, according to Lipper data. Of those nine, four were in emerging markets.

The best performing country ETF was the iShares MSCI Mexico (EWW), which pulled in an annualized 16.99% over the last ten years while the S&P 500 returned 3.88% a year over the same span.

Jesse Emspak of the IBD noted that the iShares MSCI Mexico tracks the Bolsa Mexicana, the country's stock exchange. It's relatively concentrated, with about 25% of the ETF weighting in America Movil (AMX).

Like many Latin American economies, Mexico has had steady, if modest, growth in the last decade. The country also is exporting more to Europe and Asia as trade ties have grown and the peso has fallen in tandem with the dollar.

The next best returns come from iShares MSCI Australia (EWA),which had an average annual return of 13.76% over the past ten years. Its biggest holding is BHP Billiton (BHP) which took up 13.68% of the ETF's total assets. Australia has benefittted from being at the sweet spot of Chinese economic growth and the commodity boom.

Comments

[Ames Tiedeman]

The Mexican ETF is up. Mexico can thank its trade surplus via NAFTA for this performance, in part anyway.

[REG CROWDER]

Carl, this was definitely a point worth making. I think we're going to see some outstanding performance from non-US ETFs for many years to come. For retail investors just taking their first look at international investing, non-US ETFs are a GREAT first step.

REG CROWDER
Freelance Business Journalist
London, UK & Brittany, France
www.RegCrowder.com
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