Our investment mantra has always been we invest in stocks, not in GDPs. Economic growth in Europe has been subdued for years due to a combination of declining productivity, excessive debt and a loss of competitiveness.
On the macro front, 2012 was not exactly cheerful in Europe, with the eurozone in recession, France and Austria being stripped of their AAA rating by Standard & Poors and Spain only one notch away from losing its investment grade status. Not exactly the foundation for healthy investment returns, say the pompous self-proclaimed cognoscenti advising the utter avoidance of European ex UK equities as too risky. Well, to their surprise, European ex UK equities have advanced more than 20% in 2012, outperforming global equities (up 15%), the S&P500 (up 14%), but also emerging markets (up 17...
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