José Luis Jiménez Guajardo-Fajardo, General Manager of the MAPFRE Corporate Investment Area, participated in the annual PNP Paribas Pensions & Insurance Seminar 2018.
His presentation focused on explaining which challenges investors are currently facing: inflation, geopolitical risks and the risk of emerging countries. For this MAPFRE executive, the first challenge in the assignment of assets to invest is perhaps “to humbly accept the need to improve the new Keynesian model.” He went on to explain: “We probably need to change the macroeconomic theory to better understand the world, as it happened in the 1930s with the Great Depression or in the 1970s with the oil crisis.”
Jiménez also noted that, with regard to geopolitical risks, it is important to remember is that “in the final phase of a cycle it is normal to overreact.” “I am increasingly of the opinion that behavioral economics has more weight in the model and we must rethink the idea that all agents are rational,” he added.
The risk of emerging countries was another of the main topics for discussion. According to José Luis Jiménez, they “are a key element of the global economy and the first contributor to growth (…) Many of these countries are witnessing their best macroeconomic circumstances in a long time. We have great trust and confidence in Brazil, Argentina and Turkey despite turbulence. However, investments in emerging markets need a long-term horizon,” he concluded.
According to Extel’s annual survey, which evaluates the best investment managers in the European Union, MAPFRE AM ranks among the top 20, with an increase of 19 points and going from position 30 to 11 in the ranking.
A company in the Adecco group, Extel also studies the best investment professionals in the European industry. For the first time, the selected 212 Spaniards include, in position 24, Luis García Álvarez, an Equity Investment Technician from the MAPFRE Corporate Investment Area.