Investing Daily

China's economy should be able to grow by 8 to 9 percent this year, especially if developed economies have a decent year.

Although infrastructure was the primary focus of China’s recent stimulus efforts, that bump in spending represents a drop in the bucket over the long haul. The continued migration from rural to urban areas will necessitate massive infrastructure spending over the next two decades.

China is the undisputed leader of this still-toddling recovery; we’ll wait for further confirmation before we ring the double-dip alarm.

China Investment Corp's first 13-F filing is a positive from a public relations perspective and makes for good geopolitical optics. The real significance is what it suggests China can do with its USD2.7 trillion of foreign currency reserves.

Though bilateral trade between Canada and China is only in its early stages of growth, the Great White North is already benefitting from the Middle Kingdom’s appetites.

What we’ve learned is that an effective regulatory structure on top of deposit-focused banking, the good fortune of abundant resources, and a decade of balanced federal books puts a country in good position to outperform during this unfolding recovery.

Statistics Canada reported last week that the country’s index of leading economic indicators rose 1.3 percent in November, almost two times as fast as analysts anticipated. Nine of the index’s 10 components rose and one was unchanged, the broadest increase in more than two years.

As we head into both a new decade and a new normal, don’t forget that the traditional rules of the road still apply.

Monday’s report on third-quarter GDP from Statistics Canada underscores the importance of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to China.

Like his response to the recent domestic crisis, his handling of China illustrates Stepehn Harper’s maturation from leader of a Western Canada-focused protest party to head of one of the strongest pillars in the global financial system.

The recently announced “agreement” between the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) and Verenex Energy (TSX: VNX, OTC: VRNXF) is bound to attract significant attention: LIA, a sovereign wealth fund (SWF), has become the instrument by which its sponsoring state authority has impeded market processes and damaged shareholders.

The Middle Kingdom, its leaders focused on maintaining social order through managed economic growth, is deploying its vast excess currency reserves through SOEs such as PetroChina and sovereign wealth funds (SWF) such as China Investment Corp (CIC) to buy overseas commodity assets.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty wants Canada to receive as much of the SWF’s largesse as possible. To this end, Flaherty is meeting today with CIC Chairman Lou Jiwei.

China and India remain hedge-fund favorites and are a hit with institutional investors that take a long view. I continue to believe that the next investment bubble will form in these markets.

Investors should seek exposure to the Chinese economy, which has shown the first signs of decoupling from the fate of the developed world and remainds one of the best places to invest in both bad and good economic times.

The G8 summit itself is evolving; it’s become obvious that any summit that excludes countries such as China, India and Brazil is completely toothless. Developing countries have been the key drivers of economic growth in recent years, and it appears that these nations are bouncing back more quickly from the recent economic crisis than the developed world.

Exit polls indicate that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono secured enough votes to win a second term in Indonesia. I examine the challenges Yudhoyono faces in his second term as well as the Indonesian economy's long-term growth prospects.

For long-term investors, China continues to offer attractive long-term growth prospects and investors should view any pullback in Chinese equities as a buying opportunity. China's ports are poised for a turnaround; I discuss one of my favorites and examine its growth potential.

Our basic guidance is to focus on solid businesses with healthy balance sheets that have withstood historic stress since this recession got going in late 2007. We’re interested in companies that generate sustainable dividends.

Unless an economic disaster takes place between now and the end of the year, China will deliver growth closer to 8 than 7 percent, and India should be able to register something close to 6 percent.