Redwood: Will 2017 be as good as 2016?

Brazil and Russia top performers for 2016

John Redwood, chief global strategist at Charles Stanley, explains why it is unlikely 2017 will offer as clement an investment climate as 2016, but his outlook is still upbeat.

As the New Year dawns, investment managers have some sense of relief if they can report decent positive returns for the year just ended; 2016 was generally a good year for UK investors. UK bonds produced an excellent return over the year as a whole, despite the fall in prices in the last few months.  The continuation of quantitative easing (QE) programmes of bond buying in both Japan and the euro area was augmented by a return to such action in the UK as well, underpinning prices. Interest rates remained very low in the advanced economies, as we expected. As a result, bonds shone in t...