It’s Time Emerging Markets Come In From the Cold

It's been a long while coming, but the quaintly monikered emerging-market tab might finally be nearing its end — at least for the investment world. Amundi SA, Europe's biggest fund manager, has dealt a much-needed blow to the segregation of countries supposedly requiring totally different approaches. The company noted "the lines between emerging markets and developed markets are increasingly converging," according to the Bloomberg News report.

The label of emerging markets hasn't been fit for purpose for decades, but the faux divide between "developed markets" and the rest has persisted more out of inertia than accuracy or utility. South Korea, which has one of the most sophisticated manufacturing economies in the world, will finally be included in the FTSE Russell World Government Bond Index in April.