Templeton Asset Management’s Mark Mobius says the European debt crisis isn’t as bad as many believe, and he expects it to be resolved in mid-2012.

“The European crisis isn’t as deep and terrible as people think,” Mobius told the Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico, according to CNBC.com. “Nations there are in a process of negotiations and that takes time.”

Mobius added that the size of derivatives contracts tied to European government debt is a real risk for investors, however. He also says he thinks that the weak performance of emerging market stocks in 2011 is setting up a recovery for them in 2012. And he expressed confidence that Brazil can be resilient if the global economy struggles. Brazil “is a little like the United States,” he said. “They can isolate themselves from crises since they have a big consumer market, they produce raw materials, they have industry and agriculture.”