Investors should avoid the eurozone and look to the US, China and emerging markets, former Tory minister John Redwood will say in Scotland this week.
Mr Redwood, a prominent eurosceptic in the Major government, is leading seminars in Glasgow and Edinburgh as co-founder of investment adviser Evercore Pan Asset, which can boast that in 2008 before the market crash, it urged clients to be in cash.
"Europe remains a risk area for investors," Mr Redwood said. "The people living in it are in for no growth or even recession. We think the best investment opportunities will lie in emerging markets."
He said the Cyprus crisis showed the growing reluctance of the German-led euro group to foot the bills for banking union, and should alert investors to the risks of "a zone which has so many economic, political and social problems all feeding on each other, which they are not going to solve any time soon".
China would carry on growing at 7% to 8% a year, Mr Redwood said, while the US would probably achieve 2%, had mended her banks, and had much cheaper energy. "Euroland is going to struggle to grow at all, has dearer energy, and still has some very damaged banks – that is the reality of the three big areas."
Mr Redwood said the weak eurozone had been the big factor in the 0.8% hit to gross domestic product (GDP) from external trade revealed in the Budget last week, while trade with India and China had been growing.
He added that increased public-sector activity had made a small positive contribution to GDP.
Mr Redwood's company, 50% owned by US bank Evercore, manages "multi-asset portfolio" funds for Cornerstone Asset Management, an independent Scottish wealth adviser which is staging the seminars. Evercore Pan Asset uses low-cost tracker funds but with active asset allocation, enabling the manager to target the areas believed to hold the best growth prospects at any time.
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