Romania is one of the Eastern European markets which looks the most interesting for investments, according to Mark Mobius, the emerging market guru with Templeton Asset Management, in a recent interview published by the Time magazine. But the country comes after Russia, Turkey and Poland. “Number one is Russia, but then looking at East European countries, Turkey would be first, then Poland, then Romania, in that order,” Mobius has said in the interview.

Eastern European countries, which have a lot of pluses, are now “suffering a lot of issues of their own making, because their banks were lending mortgages in Yen and Swiss Francs, trying to chase low interest rates without looking at the possibility that their currency would go crashing and their clients would be in big trouble,” said Mobius. “So they have all these issues to deal with and it's going to take time to work it out. But, again, we're talking maybe 2-3 years. In the meantime there will be selectively, some opportunities in the markets. But it's still a little early for that,” he went on for the Time.

Read the entire interview here

Franklin Templeton, which has opened an office in Romania, is awaiting to be named official fund manager for Romanian investment fund Fondul Proprietatea, after which it plans to float the fun on local and international stock markets. Mark Mobius has been traveling to Romania ever since the company has won the management contract in the country.