Dan Dascal, BT Asset Management: "The long-term stock market trend is up"

• In the last five years we have had pandemic, war and interest rate hikes; however, equity fund returns were over 100%, according to BT Asset Management Director

Equity markets are reflections of growing economies, so we have every reason to believe that the long-term market trend is upward, said Dan Dascal, CEO of BT Asset Management.

The fund manager stated: "First of all, I would advise investors not to react emotionally during periods of high volatility and take a long-term view. Over time, there have been periods of market volatility that will occur again. But if we refer to, for example, a period of five years, which is not a very long time horizon, we observe many events that have brought volatility to the markets. We had a pandemic, war, interest rate hikes, etc. However, over the past five years, I believe equity fund returns have been over 100%. It was an interval that encompassed several periods with heightened volatility at times and, nevertheless, those who remained invested had a substantial gain, far above the gains obtained from investing in other financial instruments".

Dan Dascăcal added: "We have in mind the year 2008 (known as the global economic crisis), but throughout history there have been many periods with wars, economic depressions, and always the stock exchanges have recovered and overcome those moments. We can consider that stock markets are reflections of economies, and since economies are growing, we have every reason to believe that their trend over a long time horizon is upward."

• "It is very possible that next year we will have tax increases in Romania"

From the point of view of the General Director of BT Asset Management, probably in 2024, being an election year not only in our country, the markets will not have heightened volatility. "It is very possible that next year we will have tax increases in Romania. It is difficult for me to say to what extent they will impact the BSE shares. That's why my exhortation for investors is to have a landing on a longer time horizon", said Dan Dascăcal.

The fund manager also said that our country's economy has slowed down recently and deficits continue to grow which, from his point of view, is the most worrying thing. "However, the level of Romania's debt relative to GDP is not very worrying. I'm not a macroeconomist, but I think that Romania still has room to invest in infrastructure, due to the deficit", pointed out the General Director of BT Asset Management.