This year's investment story will be equities mixed with bonds because people will be more interested in avoiding losses than taking on risk to back winners, says Phil Wagstaff, managing director UK retail M&G.
And despite fears of a bond bubble, the continued risk of deflation means that increasing the proportion of an average investor’s portfolio exposed to pre-determined returns may not be the big risk some believe it is, adds Jim Leaviss, M&G head of retail fixed income. "It’s a question of inflation," says Leaviss. Given the remaining risk of deflation, it is unlikely that, for example, the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in the US anytime soon because of the fear of repeating the mistake made in Japan in the 1990s. Then, the government introduced a sales tax right at the t...
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