Africa is a fast-growing emerging market. Better still, the recessionary effects that gripped the continent may have been more mild than previously believed. ETFs aimed at the continent could be in a prime position to prosper.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) now projects Africa’s economy will expand 4.3% this year, up from the previously forecast 4%. Next year could be even better – it’s expected to grow 5.3% then, reports Mike Cohen for Bloomberg. The IMF also expects sub-Saharan Africa’s economy will expand 4.3% this year and 5.5% the next.

Damien Hoffman: Joe, what are the MAVINS and why should we care about these countries more than the BRIC countries?

Joe Weisenthal: The MAVINS are Mexico, Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Nigeria and South Africa. These are countries with big commodity export opportunities plus an interesting domestic story.

Below is a table in order of the sum of the 3, 6, and 12 month returns for individual country ETFs. Each column represents returns for various timeframes and the percent each ETF is above (or below) the 200 day moving averages as of January's close. This list is tracked monthly on the right hand side of my blog Scott's Investments.

Note that all country ETFs are above their 200 day moving average except PGJ (China), GXC (China), FXI (China), EWP (Spain), EWG (Germany), and EWI (Italy). This is a significant change versus last month when none of the ETFs were below the 200 day SMA.