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September 23, 2013 at 08:56 AM
“One word: Angola.”
In what seems like a play on the classically awkward “plastics” scene from The Graduate, commodities guru Jim Rogers counts Angola as a top pick for commodities investors.
Rogers tells The Daily Ticker that in addition to Asia (a seemingly perennial favorite), there are great opportunities in Africa, as well one big one in South America.
“I said to my wife, ‘let’s move to Angola — we could live like kings,’” the genteel and bow-tied Rogers, author of “Street Smarts: Adventures on the Road and in the Markets,” told the website on Monday. “She said, ‘you move to Angola; I don’t want to live like a queen in Angola’…but you could!”
He includes one big surprise (or maybe not, given his commodity bent).
Read on for his picks for the best and worst commodity spots around the globe:
BEST
Angola: The website cites Bloomberg stats in noting Africa’s second-biggest oil producer has been looking to boost foreign investment after almost three decades of civil war that ended in 2002. For would-be investors, the country has plans for the start of stock exchange trading in 2016, with a futures and commodities market in 2017. The economy, it notes, grew 7.4% in 2012. The downside, according to the Ticker? The cost of living is described as “astronomical by expat standards.”
The site adds: “Money is subject to strict government controls, and decades of war means infrastructure and arable land are lacking.”
Ethiopia: It’s come a long way since Live Aid, and famed 1930s dictator Haile Selassie, deified by Rastafarians everywhere, would be proud. The Financial Times notes the African country, once known for its closed economy and squabbles with neighboring Eritrea, has become an enticing prospect for investors.
“Members of Ethiopia’s diaspora are moving back and leading the way along with Chinese investors,” the Ticler says. “They’re trading coffee and investing in health care and manufacturing.”
Uruguay: No, it’s not Brazil or Argentina, but their much smaller neighbor. The website says living in Uruguay will cost you 30% to 40% less than living in the U.S.
United States: He’s not in a New York state of mind (and doesn’t think much of other points west).
Europe: He also doesn’t buy into Europe’s long-term prospects, no matter what other pundits might say about northern Europe versus southern Europe, rebounds, recessions and other such talk.