fund manager views

Deflationary fears drove a strong performance from the ‘gilt proxies' in 2014, but there are hopes the ECB's QE programme will help the equity markets this year.

As the low interest rate environment continues to vex investors, David Urch, manager of the TB EEA UK Equity Market fund, looks at the areas of growth investors should focus on in 2015

Slow growth in emerging economies and weaker currencies are opening up investment opportunities for emerging market debt, according to Mary-Therese Barton, senior investment manager, emerging market debt at Pictet Asset Management

An improving performance trend for European assets versus US assets is a key theme investors should be focusing on currently, says Toby Vaughan, head of fund management - global multi-asset solutions at Santander Asset Management UK

Oil prices are expected to remain under pressure in the near term as global supply continues to outstrip demand, according to Martin Arnold, director and global FX & commodity strategist at ETF Securities.

The US economy is better than generally perceived. US real GDP is expected to grow more than 3% in 2015. This would represent the fastest pace since 2005, and is expected to exceed growth in other developed markets.

The outlook for dividend growth in the UK remains positive, underpinned by relatively low payout ratios, strong corporate balance sheets, and a steady economic recovery, which should support UK equities over the coming months.

The fact that the FTSE 100 finally eclipsed its previous closing high from December 1999 made for interesting headlines recently, but this does not tell the whole story, according to Franklin Templeton's Ben Russon.

Latin American equities have been out of favour with investors for some time, but things could be about to change, writes BlackRock's Will Landers.

Multi-asset