Gold Magazine January - February 2014, Issue 34 | Seite 19

NICOLAS THEOCHARIDES
CEO and Managing Director, UPM Ltd.

2013

2013 was a good year for investment
managers who recognized early that for
specific regions of the global economy,
such as the US, the recovery had started
but also for investment managers who realized that the new Japanese government
had the ability to end over two decades
of deflation and stagnation and took the
decision early to invest in these markets.
In addition, 2013 was good for the clients
of investment managers who had already
liquidated any investments they had in
gold, but also for the clients of investment managers who had been carefully
assessing the situation with the Cyprus
banks and took steps in good time to
safeguard their clients’ money.

2014

2014 does offer good potential for investment returns as it will be a year during
which the recovery in the global economy
will spread to more regions of the world.
However, when dealing with investments
there are no “certainties” to speak about
and downside risks always exist. These
could emerge from areas such as nonagreement on the US debt ceiling, the
European banks’ stress test results, from
geopolitical eruptions or, perhaps, from
the rift that is now apparent within the
eurozone between the Central European
countries and those of the Southern Periphery.

EQUITIES

Equities have had a good year in general,
with the developed markets –especially
Japan and the US – leading the way. As
the global recovery gains traction and
extends to other regions, 2014 is expected
to be another very good year for equities.
Japan is likely to be an outperformer for
a second year while Europe is expected
to deliver a good performance as, last
year, it lagged a bit among the developed
markets. The US is already at an all-timehigh and, although 2014 is expected to
be a positive year, we don’t think that
the performance will be in double digit ̸)Q