Emerging markets race: Vietnam gains ground as India’s rupee, markets weigh on ranking

Mint’s Emerging Markets Tracker more consistently. As India grapples with these weaknesses, Vietnam—newly added to the tracker—has emerged as a formidable challenger.Vietnam has claimed the top spot in three of the past four months, marking a strong debut on the tracker.

However, over a longer horizon India retains a narrow lead. Over the past 12 months, India ranked first six times compared with Vietnam’s five.The contest between India—an established emerging market giant—and Vietnam—an increasingly prominent emerging economy—has therefore become one of the most closely watched dynamics in the tracker.Launched in September 2019, Mint’s Emerging Markets Tracker compares major emerging economies using seven high-frequency indicators: real GDP growth, manufacturing PMI, export growth, retail inflation, import cover, exchange rate movements and stock market performance.The tracker currently analyses 10 major emerging market economies.

From January 2026, it has been expanded to include Vietnam and South Africa, widening the analytical framework to better capture shifts in the emerging market landscape.The rankings in this analysis map the performance of these economies based on the updated tracker over the past 12 months.A 0.9% month-on-month depreciation in the rupee and 1.79% m-o-m decline in stock market capitalization kept India at the fifth rank in January 2026. Its stock market performance was the worst during the month, and the rupee trajectory was the second-worst among the 12 EM peers.Despite this setback, India has partially recovered from its recent low of ninth place in December 2025.Vietnam, in contrast, retained strong momentum.