Where to invest in 2013

It was a choppy year for markets in 2012, with headlines dominated by the European sovereign debt crisis and ongoing austerity plans in the peripheral countries causing social unrest. The United States presidential elections also kept investors jumpy, assessing how each candidate would affect performance of the stock markets and how they would deal with the upcoming fiscal cliff. Ongoing unrest in the Arab world, a change in leadership in China and Hurricane Sandy on the US east coast were among several other issues that added to market volatility. For investment recommendations for the upcoming year, Executive spoke to 10 of the region’s top investment professionals.    Georges Abboud – Head of private banking at Blom Bank Overall view: Favors US over European markets but could see both markets becoming cheaper in 2013 due to rising unemployment and quasi-nil growth expectations. As for emerging markets, he favors Russia for being cheap. MENA: Favors