Low oil prices and China fears have scared Wall Street into a rough start this new year, but don't be so bearish, Pimco's Scott Mather said Thursday.
"Be very careful in terms of mapping this equity market volatility onto the real economy. The real economy is probably a lot more resilient than many realize," he said in an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell."
Attributing much of the decline in oil prices to increase in supply, Pimco's chief investment officer for U.S. core strategies thinks that the market is looking at the glut as if it is demand related.
"As long as demand stays continuously growing as we expect this year, and we see supply continuing to diminish ... then you'll start to see energy prices going back up," he said.
Mather thinks that the drop in oil prices is beneficial to both the U.S. consumer and the economy. He urges market watchers to take advantage of these volatile periods.
"You can't just look at low commodity prices and assume that means that we are headed for something like 2008 or a big downturn in the global cycle," Mather said.
For investors who fear the decrease in demand and economic growth from China, Pimco is of the view that domestic and currency policies in China are of greater concern.
The firm expects that inflation expectations will begin to rise due to a diminished impact from energy prices this year.
"We think we'll see yields rising gently, we think we'll still see the Fed on the move this year, but expect to see many episodes of volatility in the marketplace," he said.
Still, this is no 2008, Mather said.