A poll of 400 expatriate investors suggested that waning fears of corporate governance in China and fewer investment hurdles in India make these countries their most favored investment destinations. Luxembourg-based brokerage internaxx said that 56% of investors (up from 38% last year) favored China and 43% (unchanged) favored India.

Investment bankers say that expatriate investors living away from countries of origin are an increasingly important part of the investment population and typically make more sophisticated decisions taking into consideration international developments. Shoring up such view, they say that 81% of the respondents have claimed to have either beaten or matched performance by market indices.

Investors have turned less confident about British, U.S. and euro zone economies as places to put money because of concerns over ageing populations, rigid labor laws, and saturated home markets as reasons for their caution. Most investors favored energy and telecoms, while retail and mining were the least favored.

Increased inward remittances from Indian expatriates has contained current account deficit of the Indian economy.