The T. Rowe Price Latin America Fund (Nasdaq:PRLAX) is beating comparable market indexes to give investors a way to diversify their portfolios, to boost returns and to tap expected economic growth in the region.

The fund has produced a total return of 21.87 percent during the past 12 months, as of March 5, compared to 18.37 percent for the MSCI Emerging Markets Latin America Index, 18.42 percent for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and 14.18 percent for the S&P 500. PRLAX is rising despite heightened political uncertainty in Latin America due to presidential elections scheduled this year in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Paraguay and Venezuela.

“We were able to outperform our index last year due to strong stock selection at the sector level across a number of consumer related holdings,” said Chuck Knudsen, a portfolio specialist in T. Rowe Price’s Equity Division, which supports Emerging Markets Equity strategies, including the Latin American Fund. “From a country perspective, our stock selection in Brazil was also strong, particularly within some of the retail and banking stocks. Our investments in Argentina, which is not in the index -- it is classified as a Frontier Market -- also helped, as that country’s stock market rallied strongly on the promise of continued reforms from the Macri government.”

Growth in Latin America is expected to climb 2 percent in 2018 and 2.6 percent in 2019, up from 0.9 percent in 2017 after contraction during the two previous years, according to the World Bank. The growth should be enhanced by strengthening private consumption and investment, particularly in the region’s commodity-exporting countries.

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Paul Dykewicz, www.pauldykewicz.com, is an accomplished, award-winning journalist who has written for Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, the Journal of Commerce,Seeking Alpha, GuruFocus and other publications and websites. Paul is the editor of StockInvestor.com and DividendInvestor.com, a writer for both websites and a columnist. He further is the editorial director of Eagle Financial Publications in Washington, D.C., where he edits monthly investment newsletters, time-sensitive trading alerts, free e-letters and other investment reports. Paul previously served as business editor of Baltimore’s Daily Record newspaper. Paul also is the author of an inspirational book, “Holy Smokes! Golden Guidance from Notre Dame’s Championship Chaplain,” with a foreword by former national championship-winning football coach Lou Holtz.