A STERLING crisis would be a "serious possibility" in the event of a UK exit from the European Union, a top fund manager has warned.
James Anderson, who manages the £3.7 billion Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, highlighted his worries that people might lose confidence in the UK economy if there were to be a vote to leave the EU in the referendum promised by Prime Minister David Cameron by 2017.
Highlighting his belief that the pound could be hit, Mr Anderson said: "I think, at some point, there is a serious possibility...in the context of a British exit of a sterling crisis...that people lose confidence in the fundamentals of the economy."
In this context, he cited "everything from" the trade deficit and weak productivity to low investment.
Asked about his assessment of the probability of a UK exit from the EU, Mr Anderson replied: "I would have thought it is something like one-in-three to one-in-four. I don't think it is the likely outcome but I think it is quite possible."
Mr Anderson voiced his opinion that the chances of the UK exiting the EU had decreased in the last 12 months.
He said: "I think they probably have (decreased) in the sense that I think the power of the populist xenophobic fringes has probably got a bit less to influence the debate."
While emphasising the EU membership question was "not central to the way we go about investing" at Scottish Mortgage, Mr Anderson added: "It is a major issue."
x-ref to Called to Account
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article