Europe’s largest asset manager Amundi is moving out of US assets in favour of China, attracted by the country’s brighter economic prospects, better valuations and a more benign outlook for inflation.
Vincent Mortier, chief investment officer of the Paris-based fund firm, which has €2.1tn in assets, thinks “too much risk” is priced into Chinese credit and high-quality companies, while markets in the US are “too optimistic” as a recession looms.
“In our allocations we have made a clear shift from west to east,” Mortier said in an interview with the Financial Times, predicting that the US economy will not grow next year while China, India and Indonesia will each grow by 5 to 6 per cent.