This paper examines the problems of growth and macro-management facing emerging market economies in the aftermath of the recent global financial crisis and assesses the main challenges for policy in this context. It questions the relevance of development strategies based on export markets at the current conjuncture and emphasizes the importance of fostering growth in and strategizing access to domestic markets. The paper contends that, going forward, a key challenge for EMEs would be to create adequate policy space for accommodating the increasingly complex interactions between the markets for real and financial assets and their implications for the real economy. This calls for a creative yet pragmatic approach to policy making that strikes the right balance, especially between the opposing forces of state intervention and market orientation.