The survey polled 11,113 investors in 22 countries across Africa, Asia Pacific, the Americas and Europe on their current attitudes towards investing and their expectations for 2014 and the decade ahead.
UK prospects
Despite the sense of uncertainty, many investors agree that 2014 will be a positive year for stocks. A higher number of respondents think the UK will deliver better equity returns in 2014 than in the previous year’s survey. However, expectations for equity returns in Asia are down by 11% year on year.
Precious metals are not expected to perform as well in 2014. On the other hand, equities and property are expected to see better results, according to respondents. The percentage of respondents who think precious metals will perform best fell from 33% in 2013 to 15% in 2014, while the percentage which thinks equities and property will perform best rose from 21% to 27%.
Global outlook
Investors are still showing signs of risk aversion five years on from the market downturn. Globally, 52% of investors are planning to become more conservative with their strategies this year, taking on less risk with the potential of earning lower returns. However, this risk aversion is less pronounced than last year when the annual survey showed that 57% of investors planned to be more conservative with their investments.
This trend towards conservatism runs counter to the fact that most investors expect better stock market performance and higher returns from their investments this year, as well as the fact that four out of five investors feel optimistic about reaching their financial goals.
“In the long term, the greatest risk investors run is remaining too risk-averse for too long. In order to achieve their goals and preserve their standard of living, most investors need to generate investment returns higher than inflation after tax, something that cash deposits have historically failed to deliver,” country head UK, Ian Wilkins, said.
