Investment Conundrums: Neptune's Geffen and Dowey warn things could 'get ugly' in the UK

Avoiding domestic stocks

Neptune Investment Management's chief executive Robin Geffen and CIO James Dowey have said high levels of UK debt coupled with the uncertainty of Brexit makes the domestic market extremely vulnerable to rising rates.

The duo said things could "get ugly" very quickly if the Bank of England (BoE) was forced into raising rates quickly as a result of sustained high inflation. At the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in February, BoE Governor Mark Carney suggested a rate hike would be needed "somewhat earlier" and to a "somewhat greater extent", while subsequently recently released UK inflation figures surprised on the upside, remaining at 3% in January and putting further pressure on the BoE. "You have had this anaesthetic [of low rates] in the UK over the past decade and, meanwhile, the problem...