Quantcast
Menu
Save, make, understand money

Experienced Investor

China, Brexit and US elections: chief investment officer gives his views

Joanna Faith
Written By:
Joanna Faith
Posted:
Updated:
05/05/2016

Three of the most hotly debated topics of 2016 among investors will be China’s economic growth, the outcome of the EU referendum and the build up to and eventual result of the US presidential race.

Here, Kames Capital’s chief investment officer Stephen Jones gives his views on these themes and briefly discusses how they are currently affecting UK investors.

What are your views on China now and its economic growth? 

After a particularly volatile second half of 2015 for the Chinese economy, Jones says there have been several positive developments, which have gone under-reported. He reveals what they are and explains why China is “less of a drag on global growth” than it was last year.

What impact would Brexit have on the economy and shares? 

The debate about how an exit from the European Union would impact the domestic share market has hotted up ahead of the 23 June referendum. According to Jones, sterling will be at the forefront of the debate from an investor point of view and he believes the currency will remain weak up until the day of the vote.

He says UK equity markets have started to discount some of the concerns around slower economic growth that might occur if the UK were to enter re-negotiations or exit negotiations from the EU.

Are the US elections having an impact on markets yet? 

The focus on the race to select candidates is dominating airwaves and Jones says to a small degree, it is beginning to affect markets. However, he says until we start to get concrete policies from chosen candidates, the impact of the current debate on markets will be relatively limited.