Hotel investment in emerging countries provides greater rates of return

27 April 2016

Growth in economies in emerging countries outstrips developed economies

Emerging economies will provide greater rates of return for hotel investments than in developed economies, says Christof Ruhl, global head of research at Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).

Speaking at the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC) in Dubai on 27 April, he said that there were four main reasons that global economic growth has slowed.

Ruhl said that the oil price is not the only change having an impact on world economies. The economist said the world has not yet fully recovered from the 2008-09 debt crisis, with global debt continuing to build up.

Thirdly, countries are going through a lot of structural change, blurring the borders between consumer spending power in oil producing and importing nations, and that the world has become more technologically advanced and efficient. Ruhl says that whatever happens to the oil price, it only has about half the impact that it did in the 1970s.

He said growth would be about 4 per cent for emerging markets and 2 per cent in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.

“Even while [people] continue to complain about investing in non-OECD countries [due for instance to security]… they will still grow faster than OECD countries,” he said.

“Between 2000 and 2008, it was the fastest growth ever recoded in non-OECD countries… developing countries will continue to catch up with developed countries.”

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