PE Ratio and Dividend Yield by Country

US brokers provide information on P/E and dividend yield for most ETF. This gives a simple way to monitor metrics such as market P/E and Dividend Yield. The ETF table can be found here.

High Yield ETFs

The list of countries was taken from the list of stock market by market capitalisation. We are missing Iran, Russia, Bangladesh, Morrocco, Luxemburg, Kazakhstan and Hungary which do not seem to have a dedicated ETF trading in the US. I did not check smaller stock markets.

Meb Faber had written about CAPE and CAPD about 10 years ago. His argument is that investing in lower PE stock market avoids bubbles such as Japan in the 80s.

There are important caveats before we dive in the markets below:

• Data Quality: We just show dividend yield and PE data as reported by a vendor, and did not check the data or calculations at all. We have no confirmation for now that these reported yields and PE are accurate.
• Political Risk: Economic development is predicated on political stability and predictability, including the absence of sanctions. There is always a risk of total loss and confiscation when keeping one's money in a single country's financial system (whether in bank account, bonds or stocks, as in Russia in 1917 or China in 1946). That risk may be significantly higher in the countries with hyperinflation, in discussion witht eh IMF, with the highest dividend yields than in lower dividend yield ones. Finally, US listed ETF and ADR listing are even more at risk than investments at a local broker, as shown for US listed Russia ETF and ADR in 2022. The convenience and lower fees of using a Western broker to own Russian stock has led to total loss for investors.

With these out of the way, here are a few comments on the cheapest markets:

• Pakistan: no data in yahoo, which makes it look frontier, US sponsored coup on the back of Ukraine war followed by IMF bailout, exchg. Brokers are BMA Capital, Arif Habib, JS Global, Askari Securities, AKD Securities. There is no capital control on remittances and tax is same as for pakistani (no CGT after 2yr, and a dividend tax at 15%). Etf is PAK, dividend is driven by Engro Corp Ltd, Engro Corp Ltd, Engro Fertilizers, Hub Power Co Ltd and some banks
• Colombia, Peru, Chile: the three national exchanges have merged. broker such as Action y Valores. Now, the merger keep being announced on the web in 2010, we see further comments in 2011, in 2021, and in 2023 as being scheduled for 2025.
• Chile: Bolsa de Santiago, data in yahoo finance, etf=ECH, high yield due to Sociedad Quimica
• Colombia: etf = GXG, the high yield is due to Ecopetrol, colombia stock exchange requires vpn
• Peru: Bolsa de Lima
• Indonesia etf is EIDO, companies with high dividend are PT Astra International and PT Adaro Energy Indonesia. If investing directly, one needs to open an account at a local broker (OCBC sekuritas or KGI sekuritas), you require a trustee bank acct and reg at idx.
• Thailand: stocks do not have voting rights or dividends for shareholders unless bought in a certain category that is much less liquid. An article on investing there is written by InvestAsian. They advise getting residence or in contact with them.