Emerging markets are cheap. The problem is they have been cheap for most of the last decade, and have failed to deliver on their promise.

Over the past 10 years, the disparate collection of 24 countries bundled into “EM” – which range across South-East Asia to South America, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East – has returned a fairly pedestrian 5 per cent per year. Over the same period, Australian shares have returned 8 per cent, and global developed markets (ex-Australia) 13 per cent.