Russia has, of late, been grabbing international headlines. When the difficulties in Georgia are settled and the world's focus eventually shifts, it likely will be to the West or to the Persian Gulf, to Africa or even South America.

Eastern Europe is usually overlooked.

That might be less true in an Olympic year: The medal count shows that these little-known countries from a forgotten region are fierce competitors.  Romania, Poland, Slovenia and Bulgaria have all fielded gold medal-winning athletes. Without the summer games in Beijing, though, it's likely these countries would remain out of sight and out of mind.

Sophisticated travelers have long been entranced by the area's charms. The Czech Republic capital of Prague, whose history spans 1,100 years, is Eastern Europe's jewel. The city has been an international cultural center since the Holy Roman Emperor Rudulf II chose it as his home in the late 16th century. Warsaw, which was razed to the ground in World War II, literally rose out of the rubble to become one of the tallest cityscapes in Europe. Bulgaria is charming from its Alpine summits in the Balkan Mountains to its pleasant Black Sea shore. Sofia, its capital, is home to one of the most striking Orthodox cathedrals in the world.

Eastern Europe's potential was -- to put it mildly -- untapped under Soviet control. The region lay economically dormant, stifled by an inefficient communist state. The toppling of the Berlin Wall in 1989 sparked hope, but progress is slow in a region with a thousand-year memory. Fifteen years passed between the release of the Soviet chokehold on Eastern Europe and Poland's entry into the European Union. Many of its neighbors followed suit. Slovenia held the international body's rotating presidency until the end of June. Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU only last year.  

But this is an investment newsletter, not a travelogue. The Eastern European slumber is over for good. The region is awake, and its residents are serious about making up lost ground and catching up to the West. Eastern Europe is growing ever more vibrant, and it offers a remarkable -- if still widely overlooked -- investment opportunity. You simply can't afford to overlook these countries any longer. They can bring serious returns for your portfolio -- and put hefty double-digit dividends in your pocket along the way.

Strong GDP Growth
    
One quick way to gauge the region's potential is its economic growth -- a rising tide lifts all boats. Eastern Europe has some real achievers in this regard: At +10.3%, the rate of growth in Latvia rivals China. In addition, at least eight other Eastern European countries exceed the world's average +5.2% annual growth rate -- a measure the United States lags by a several percentage points.

These favorable economies have fueled sizzling market performance in Eastern Europe for the past five years. Poland saw a rise of +254.5% in that time. The Czech Republic rose +322.7%. And Latvia, with its stellar GDP growth, is a relative underperformer, having increased only +119.5% -- surely it has yet to do some real broken-field running.

The S&P?  It notched a mere +30.7% advance in the same period.

Eastern Europe also includes Russia, and that region's rich mineral resources are powering hefty dividend payouts. Smaller Eastern European countries know they have to pony up to attract foreign investment -- which is the only way this region will continue its dynamic upward trend.

Clearly, if you're concentrating your investments in U.S. companies, you cannot reasonably expect to mirror these triple-digit returns. We simply do not have the growth here to power that sort of market performance. It won't happen. It can't happen ...

Even if you exclude all other factors, U.S. growth is limited by the inertia of the world's largest economy. In other words, it's easier for a smaller, underdeveloped country to grow -- and to maintain a relatively high rate of growth for years -- than it is for a large, mature economy like the United States. History bears this out: The S&P hasn't led the league in 60 years.

Current forecasts show that trend is certain to continue. The S&P will be lucky to end the year in positive territory. Growth is greater than +5% across Eastern Europe and less than +2% here at home.

Consider the 2008 growth forecasts:

These projections look less than rosy for the U.S., but there is a glimmer of hope.  Why? Because growth in Eastern Europe is expected to continue, even as we struggle in the States. That means you still have time to profit from Eastern Europe's good fortune.

In addition to strong growth, the payout is far higher. Estonia, for example, has an average dividend yield of 4.9% -- more than twice the S&P. The Czech Republic average is 3.8%; Poland 3.3%. The list goes on: Eastern Europe wants to attract international capital and is willing and able to pay for it. 

Now, investing in Eastern Europe can be complicated, time-consuming and expensive. But it doesn't have to be any of those things. We've found an exchange-traded fund that does all the legwork in bringing these companies to you. In fact, ETFs let you access these markets on the New York Stock Exchange.

I added shares of an ETF focused on this profitable and promising region to my "Ultra High-Yield" Portfolio in July, a portfolio that's available only to subscribers of my premium High Yield International newsletter.

This ETF is not only positioned in a high-growth market and poised to deliver double-digit gains, it's also paid an astonishing 25.2% in dividends and short-term capital gains. (Long-term gain distributions juice the return even further.) The fund's 44 companies are the creme de la creme of Russia and Eastern Europe, with each region representing half the portfolio. 

To learn the name of this ETF and have access to the rest of the High-Yield International portfolios, go here. 




-- Nick Lanyi
Editor, High-Yield International