Investor Jim Rogers isn’t buying equities now, even in Sri Lanka and China, which he liked earlier this year.
“I am not buying equities anywhere at the moment because there had been such big run-ups and cheers all over the world, that I am just sitting and watching,” he says.
“Normally, when you have big booms over a 10- or 12-month period, it is time to sit back and do something else,” Rogers told India’s Economic Times.
If he were going to leave the investing sidelines at the moment, Rogers says he would buy agricultural commodities, including agricultural land.
“Agriculture prices are still very depressed on a historic basis,” Rogers notes. “That's where I think there are going to be great opportunities."
Though he sees inflation as a big issue for much of the world, Rogers says that, in India, water is an even bigger problem for northern India. especially for agriculture in the area.
“You have got the land, you have got the soil, you have got the weather, everything is right for India and yet, there are so many regulations and it is almost impossible for Indian farmers to produce, much less to compete with the rest of the world,” Rogers notes.
Historically, India's agriculture growth has lagged growth in the overall economy, The Wall Street Journal reports. Long-term average growth in Indian agriculture has been close to 2 percent, whereas India's population has been growing at 1.4 percent.
Consequently, India has just managed to maintain its per capita growth in food and non-food crop production.
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