Emerging market equity markets have performed worse this year than the developed markets from which the world’s economic woes originated, reigniting the debate about the extent to which high-growth economies have decoupled from those of the US and Europe.

Of the 57 emerging and developed market regional indices run by MSCI, 17 of the worst performing 20 for the year to date are emerging markets. The MSCI Emerging Market index has fallen 13.5% so far this year while the MSCI World index (which tracks developed world equity markets) has slipped 10.3%. Of the 1,224 emerging market funds tracked by Morningstar, only 20 have made money for investors for the year to August 17.