Is the UK primed to bounce back - and what next for Scottish Mortgage?

This is Money Podcast

This is Money

Business News, Business, Investing, News

4.1 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2021

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is the economy primed to bounce back?

That might sound like a strange question when you’ve just had the news that UK GDP fell by 2.9 per cent in one month, but January’s lockdown slump was nowhere near as deep as expected.

It seems that despite a tough lockdown being imposed, shops and big chunks of the economy being shut and schools being closed, the UK has adapted to restrictions better than thought when it comes to doing business.

On this week’s podcast, Georgie Frost, Jayna Rana and Simon Lambert discuss the prospects for recovery and also the businesses that have pivoted and started-up over the lockdown year.

While economies have suffered, stock markets have rebounded strongly – and in the case of the US and its growth star stocks, repeatedly surpassed previous record highs.

That’s been good news for UK investors backing the growth story, particularly the legions of savers with money in the giant Scottish Mortgage investment trust.

But a growth stock wobble in the US has sent Scottish Mortgage sliding – with the trust down 27 per cent at one point on its January peak – followed by a rapid bounce back to erase some of those losses.

Should investors be worried or is it a buying opportunity – and what is the one key investing lesson that Simon says this highlights?

Also on this week’s show, the mortgage that lets you fix for life – bringing potentially a 40-year fixed rate until 2061.

And finally, would you buy your local pub to rescue it from the threat of closure? If the answer’s ‘yes’ then there’s some good news: Rishi Sunak wants to help you.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to This Is Money podcast. I'm Georgie Frost and alongside me and editor Simon Lambert. Today is
0:05.9	Jane Arana investing and small business reporter. And coming up, the great tech share wobble.
0:12.0	As Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust slumps 25%. We ask if the shine has come off the likes of Tesla,
0:18.4	et al, or is this just a bump in the road? Should investors be
0:21.8	concerned, or is this an opportunity? Also today, the recovery could be female, according
0:26.6	to small business Britain. Jane has been chatting to some top female founders for International
0:32.0	Women's Day, plus GDP figures, trust versus funds, would you fix your mortgage until
0:36.6	2016? And forget a pint and a bag of port scratchings? I love it. figures, trust versus funds, would you fix your mortgage until 2061?
0:38.0	And forget a pint and a bag of port scratchings.
0:41.5	I'll have the pub, please, landlord.
0:43.1	Don't forget, you stay up to date.
0:44.3	With all the latest breaking money news, just go to this ismoney.co.uk or download the app.
0:49.9	But first, we got the latest GDP figures for the first month of the year, 2.9% leaving the UK economy 9% smaller than its pre-pandemic peak.
0:59.5	But Simon, not as bad as expected.
1:02.7	Is that the best we can say about it?
1:04.5	Yes.
1:05.3	I mean, in normal times, it would be awful.
1:07.4	But at the moment, it's not actually that bad.
1:09.4	So 2.9% December, January, forecasts were
1:13.7	for 4.9%. So that's quite a substantial improvement on a shrinkage of 4.9% even if 2.9% fall
1:22.5	is pretty bad for GDP. And it's also a fraction of the 18.3% collapse that we saw in April last year, which was when
1:30.8	lockdown 1 started in essence, in full force and the last time schools were ordered to close.
	...

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