If it isn’t, he is certainly (and quite rightly in my opinion) concentrating on the rabbit called growth, while the one called inflation simply ambles around the UK nibbling on dandelions!
I remain positive for this year, though it is fair to say that that it is being tested. A third general strike in Greece, threats to the US AAA-rating and raging inflation in India and China all carry concerns …
Japan
I said last month: “I still like Japanese equities”. Well, I like them even more now, increasing my weighting at the start of this month, partly from cash, partly from trimming emerging markets or other global markets as we prefer to call them.
Like a stuck record, I still have 5% in gold (more security than anything else) and have added (on weakness) to my wheat ETF.
As regards fixed income assets, I am very happy with the recent returns from my zero dividend preference shares holding, though in very recent times the global convertibles investment has taken a hit.
In emerging economies, although allocations have been reduced as above, I combine a broad emerging market fund with the previously mentioned Brazil Investment Trust – this is looking better and better value to me, though I can see the short-term risks. Again, to repeat something I said last month, it is noticeable how BRIC economies, still showing great GDP growth compared to the UK and most other developed markets, have not seen a translation in investment returns in recent months.
Chasing tails
UK and overseas commercial property still account for around 7%, with the UK element ticking up steadily.
So, does the newly knighted Governor (and other central bankers) have the rabbit of growth in his sights (the aim being to catch and nurture it, of course) or would “they” be concentrating on the other rabbit?
As per Watership Down, are the “first primroses beginning to bloom” or are we, instead, facing a danger that, as Fiver struggled to do, we can’t accurately describe?
