Skopje, 23 September 2022 (MIA) – It seems that stock exchanges will operate in a new cycle of big oscillations, high inflation and interest rates. Predictions cannot be made at this time, said Macedonian Stock Exchange (MSE) CEO Ivan Shteriev on Friday. Shteriev told the 21st annual MSE conference that 2022 will be a historic year from the aspect of economies and stock exchanges’ trends, the price of that being hibernated economic growth and possible recession. “Paradigms are changing regarding the normalcy in macroeconomic policies and investments. Everything that has happened globally over the past few years has culminated in an inflation that we haven’t seen for decades. Central banks are forced to increase interest rates, although they claimed some time ago that inflation is transitory. The market sentiment changed swiftly. Investors are concerned and turning to safer instruments is not that simple as it once was in such situations. It seems that stock exchanges will operate in a new cycle of big oscillations, high inflation and interest rates,” said Shteriev. According to him, the so-called stock picking will become more attractive rather than investing in broad indices, by companies primarily in the sectors of logistics, raw materials, energy and renewable sources, infrastructure, banks, defense etc. Other sectors that saw a boom in recent years will not be that attractive anymore, such as IT. Shteriev said the Macedonian index MBI10 has posted a contraction of more than seven percent. In comparison, Slovenia’s index dropped by ten percent, while those in Croatia and Bulgaria about 4-5 percent. He said stock exchange predictions cannot be made at this time and it remains to be seen what will happen in the coming period in global, regional and national terms. Shteriev added that the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) has became the largest individual shareholder in MSE with a 30-percent share, adding that the strategic commitment to link up with larger stock exchanges arises from the assessment that more dynamic development is not possible within the local environment. “We have been building the market and institutional infrastructure for years and it is set on solid foundations, which has been reaffirmed by the ZSE entry. However, we are aware about the need for a quantum leap and we cannot do this by ourselves. The market offer is small, listed companies have been the same for years, the MSE market capitalization is about 26 percent, unlike the EU, where the average is about 70 percent,” noted Shteriev.