26 Aug 2015

Market plunge sparks warning for region's trust funds

3:49 pm on 26 August 2015

The plunging Chinese stock market and volatility in global stocks have sparked a warning for trust funds in the region.

An economist specialising in the Pacific region, the Asian Development Bank's Emma Veve says more than half of Pacific island countries have trust funds and many of them have invested to some extent in stock markets globally.

"Also when you've got superannuation funds in the countries, many of them invest some of their funds if not all of their funds offshore to get a good return on them. Pretty much all of the countries to various degrees have some exposure to the global financial markets. These are the swings and roundabouts that you expect of investments in the stockmarket so we'd expect to see them over a longer period of time pick up again. "

Emma Veve says it will be important for the Pacific to look at the flow on effects of China's downturn on south east Asian stockmarkets and developed country markets as they might have a longer term effect on the region.