Emerging Markets

I've always thought that a very positive development for third-world countries was when investors started to refer to them as "emerging markets" rather than "third-world countries," "poor countries," or the like. As best I can tell (which is to say, based on LEXIS research), the earliest mention of "emerging markets" came from the Latin America Commodities Report on December 10, 1976, when it said:

"If nothing else, the deal illustrated the kind of competition Argentina is likely to come up against this season in emerging markets like Egypt."

The fact that the earliest mention I can find comes from an industry newsletter suggests that analysts were using the term already. But without any evidence that this term was being used before December 10, 1976, then I say, thank you Latin America Commodities Report!

UPDATE: I knew I should have extended my search all the way back to the '60s! Now I see that the earliest mention came from Infovest21, another industry newsletter, on December 31, 1969, when it said:

"Hedge fund strategies currently in favor with European investors are at opposite ends of the return/risk spectrum, notably emerging markets are on one end and market neutral equity strategies at the other end."

This is the earliest mention in the LEXIS database. So thank you, Infovest21!