Australian investors expected to take greater risks

Australian investors are likely to take on more risk this year as returns from the ASX and property investment decline, an international survey has found.

The annual Mercer Investment Consulting survey of fund managers found that 68 per cent of Australian investment managers believed that alternative investment mandates would increase significantly this year.

Most expected this to be spread across commodities, hedge funds, private equity, infrastructure and global property.

However, a local fund manager said she had not noticed any change among New Zealand investors.

Carmel Fisher, chief executive of Fisher Funds Management in Auckland, said New Zealanders had been early adopters of higher-risk investments like hedge funds.

"Rather than us lagging behind, it was more likely a case of the Australians following us. I've been really surprised by the interest in hedge funds during the past 12 months."

Fisher said she hoped local investors would note the NZX's strong performance in the past year and look to invest more in equities which had a much lower risk.

The survey polled more than 200 investment managers across Asia, Australia, Europe, the US, Canada and Brazil.

The global results showed average expectations were for global GDP growth of 1.1 per cent this year.

World equity markets were expected to be reasonably strong but lower than last year.

The average prediction for the World Index was a 7.7 per cent return, down from 14.7 per cent last year.