The fund normally invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in equity securities, such as common stock, of issuers in emerging markets. The fund relies on MSCI Inc., a third-party provider of benchmark indexes and data services, or another unaffiliated data provider to determine the country assigned to a security and whether the country is considered an emerging market. The fund considers frontier markets to be a subset of emerging markets, and any investments in frontier markets are counted toward the fund’s 80% investment policy. Any derivatives that provide exposure to the investment focus suggested by the fund’s name, or to one or more market risk factors associated with the investment focus suggested by the fund’s name, are counted (as applicable) toward compliance with the fund’s 80% investment policy.

The fund expects to primarily invest in common stocks and depositary receipts (including American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) and Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs)) of companies located (or with primary operations) in emerging markets (which may include frontier markets) in Asia, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The countries in which the fund normally invests include, but are not limited to, the following:

The fund may, at times, invest significantly in Asia and specifically, China.

The adviser’s decision-making process focuses on bottom-up stock selection with an awareness of the global economic backdrop and the adviser’s outlook for certain industries, sectors, and individual countries. The fund diversifies broadly across a variety of industries. The fund may purchase the stocks of companies of any size. While country allocation is driven largely by stock selection, the adviser may limit investments in markets or industries that appear to have poor overall prospects.

The adviser attempts to create a portfolio with similar characteristics to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (Index) with the potential to provide excess returns relative to the Index. The Index gives a representation of equity stocks across emerging market countries globally. The Index also covers large- and mid-cap equity stocks across all sectors and style segments. The fund uses a disciplined portfolio construction process whereby it weights each country/region, sector, and industry similarly to the Index. Within each country/region, sector, and industry, the weighting of individual fund holdings can vary significantly from their weighting within the Index. The fund attempts to outperform the Index by overweighting those stocks that are viewed favorably relative to their weighting in the Index, and underweighting or avoiding those stocks that are viewed negatively.

A portfolio oversight team, made up of the portfolio managers, is responsible for the overall structure of the fund and for developing rules for portfolio construction and seeks to take advantage of T. Rowe Price’s fundamental research by assigning equity analysts to select stocks for the fund within industries where they have focused expertise.

At times, the fund may have a significant portion of its assets invested in the same economic sector, such as financials and information technology.