Europe, Middle East and Africa - EMEA

Multinational companies often group their business interests by region. So they might put the U.S. and Canada together into a North American region. They've got Asia, which might cover its operations in Japan, China, and South Korea. Or maybe they call that region Australasia, if they want to throw Australia in there.

And, of course, Europe.

Then, along with Europe, a lot of companies throw in the Middle East and Africa. It seems like kind of a big throw-in, considering Africa itself is significantly larger than Europe. But most companies don't do enough business in Africa or the Middle East for them to make sense as separate regions. So they put together a kind of combo platter: Europe, Middle East, and Africa, or EMEA for short.

See: Country Basket Index. See: Sector Fund. See: Index Fund.