Survey: Emerging Markets Returns To Drop

Emerging market equity investment returns will see "a particularly sharp decline" in 2006, according to Mercer Investment Consulting's annual Fearless Forecast survey.

The survey, which polled 157 investment firms, predicts that emerging market investment returns will be approximately 9% this year, which is significantly lower that the 34% returns shown by the MSCI Emerging Markets Index in 2005.

Overall, the survey predicts that global equity markets will drop nearly 2% to a median 7.6% return in 2006 from 9.5% in 2005.