Eastern Europe and Russia may not seem like an attractive investment proposition, what with regional conflict, political risk and the dominance of certain volatile sectors such as oil and gas. But Christopher Colunga (pictured right), co-manager of BlackRock Emerging Europe (BEEP) investment trust, argues that the time to consider emerging markets is not when most people would expect.
"Emerging Europe offers deep value relative to other emerging and western markets," he says. "Last year was a fabulous year for eastern European markets, but they are still very cheap - they have not moved in valuation terms."
At the end of April 2017, MSCI Emerging Europe index was on a forward price-earnings ratio of 8.1, in contrast MSCI Emerging Markets on 12.5 and MSCI World on 17.3.