Mark Burgess, the asset manager’s chief investment officer, and Philip Dicken, head of European equities, agreed that there are strong arguments for Greece leaving the single currency.
Earlier this week, the latest attempt to keep Greece in the eurozone saw the bloc’s finance ministers agree to give the country more time to repay its emergency funds, cut the rates on bailout loans, suspend interest payments and engineer a bond buyback.
However, Burgess said keeping the country in the eurozone at all costs may not be best for Greece itself or the single currency as a whole.
“For a whole bunch of reasons, I think it’s inevitable that Greece does leave [the euro]. I think it needs to go away and rebuild itself as both an economy and a society,” he explained.
“It doesn’t function – it doesn’t collect taxes, doesn’t employ people and doesn’t provide basic services. It needs to rehabilitate and rebuild itself, then re-enter the global financial system.”
Dicken also expects Greece to leave the eurozone, although this is unlikely to take place before the German election towards the end of next year.
“People are much more prepared for it than they were a year or two ago,” he added. “When we look at valuations, we think that’s to a large extent in the price. Even though at the time it would be a shock, actually things will move on quite quickly.”
