You won’t see really exciting market growth anywhere in the developed world right now. There’s not even much to be found in emerging market economies.

But there are still countries with over 6% growth, says Andrew Gordon in Investor’s Daily Edge. Some of them, such as Afghanistan and Angola, aren’t the safest places in the world, however. And they are difficult to invest in directly.

A way around this is to find an American company doing business in these high-growth economies or a foreign company listed on a US stock exchange.

Market growth is nowhere to be found. Not in Canada, not in Mexico, not in emerging countries and certainly not in the U.S., as the chart below attests.

So, has market growth and the economic growth it depends on completely disappeared from the face of the earth. Not quite. There are still some countries showing impressive economic growth. The fastest-growing country in the world is Azerbaijan. Its economy is growing at an 18.6 percent clip. And on Azerbaijan’s heels is Angola – clocking growth of 16 percent.

According to the IMF there are plenty of countries whose growth comes in over six percent. I’ve listed them below from fastest to slowest.

Armenia (10)
Turkmenistan (9.5)
Liberia (9.5)
China (9.3)
Nigeria (9.1)
Georgia (9)
Libya (8.8)
Afghanistan (8.6)
Ethiopia (8.4)
Uzbekistan (8)
India (7.9)
Tanzania (7.8)
Panama (7.7)
Sudan (7.6)
Oman (7.4)
Vietnam (7.3)
Cambodia (7.2)
Montenegro (7.2)
Belarus (7.1)
Uganda (7.1)
Argentina (7)
Peru (7)
Moldova (7)
Egypt (7)
Mozambique (7)
Ghana (6.9)
Russia (6.8)
Madagascar (6.8)
Suriname (6.8)
Sierra Leone (6.5)
Morocco (6.5)
Lithuania (6.5)
Sri Lanka (6.4
Zambia (6.3)
Indonesia (6.1
Mauritania (6.1)
Uruguay (6)
Pakistan (6)

Other than the BRIC (Brazil/Russia/India/China), not many of the other countries have captured investors’ imagination. Vietnam and Argentina are the two notable exceptions.

Would you like to invest in the fastest-growing country – Angola? All I know about Angola is that my daughter lives on the Namibian side of the border between Namibia and Angola and the Peace Corps won’t allow her to step one foot inside Angola. It’s not the safest country in the world … to travel or invest in.

Pakistan anybody? How about Afghanistan? The Sudan? Clearly, many of these countries are unsavory for one reason or another. And many others are hard to invest in: there are no mutual funds investing in them or companies in those countries listed on American exchanges.

But there are some. For example, Telekomunikasi (TLK), Indonesia’s major telecom company, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Another way to invest? Find an American company that is doing a lot of business in one or several of these countries. For example, Dow Chemical is making a major investment in Libya and Intel is doing a major project in Vietnam.

Or find a respectable overseas company listed on a U.S. exchange that is doing business in these countries. For example, Sasol (SSS), the oil and gas producer from South Africa, has operations in Mozambique and other African countries. It’s also listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Or if you’re interested in Moldova, Belarus, Montenegro and other central European countries, you could invest in iShares Austria Index ETF, (EWO). This ETF invests in companies which do business in central Europe.

Granted, it’s indirect exposure. But given the risky nature of many of these countries, indirect is probably the best kind of exposure to have.

Source: It Is Still Possible to Invest in Growth