Credit Suisse’s CEO Is Calm About Emerging Markets, With One Caveat
Amid turmoil in emerging markets and concern about a potential contagion, Credit Suisse is keeping calm.
(Bloomberg) -- Amid turmoil in emerging markets and concern about a potential contagion, Credit Suisse Group AG Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam is keeping calm.
“I never really worry about emerging-market crises. The emerging markets that are well-managed are fine and that’s all there is to it,” Thiam said Wednesday at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York. The Zurich-based lender is focusing on managing money for the wealthy in emerging markets.
Thiam, 56, said markets are more likely to punish economies that aren’t properly monitored -- regardless of development status. He said countries must have balanced budgets, reasonable foreign currency reserves and debt-to-GDP ratios and adequate account balances.
“The penalty for a country for being poorly managed is much higher; emerging economies have to be well managed,” Thiam said. “Well-managed economies are safe. If they happen to be emerging, so be it, but then poorly managed economies are unsafe.”
--With assistance from Jan-Henrik Förster.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ivan Levingston in New York at ilevingston@bloomberg.net;Francine Lacqua in London at flacqua@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Dan Reichl, Josh Friedman
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