ICR309: The Gilt bear market has begun
In this episode, I’m joined by Jeff Keen from Waverton Investment Management to talk about gilts - the bear market has begun. With rising interest rates and inflationary pressures, what can cautious investors expect from gilts and bonds in the years ahead, and what alternatives offer similar levels of diversification within a portfolio.
There’s also a roundup of the latest personal finance news and the aftershow, where I talk about some of the things we’ve been up to at Informed Choice this week.
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Personal finance news
-Price inflation, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index, stayed at 3% for the year to January. Economists expected a slight fall in CPI to 2.9% in January.
-Economic growth in the European Union rose at its fastest pace in a decade last year. New figures from Eurostat, the EU statistics office, confirmed growth of 2.5% last year, the fastest pace of growth since 2007.
-The Work and Pensions Select Committee has reported that members of the British Steel Pension Scheme were targeted by “vulture” financial advisers. Tata announced a restructuring of the £14bn pension fund last year, as part of a deal to keep its UK division afloat.
-One million UK employers have enrolled staff into a workplace pension, helping more than 9 million employees save towards a more financially secure retirement. The new figures, released by The Pensions Regulator, show that over 600,000 employers have complied with their duties in the past year alone.
-A new report from the Resolution Foundation has warned that the continuing overhang from the last credit crisis is of greater concern than the recent rise in consumer credit growth or threat of rising interest rates. Consumer credit levels have risen at just under 10% in the last year.
Useful links
-Waverton Investment Management
-Gilts - the bear market has begun
-Black Edge by Sheelah Kolhatkar
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