Business
Welcome to the podcast from Morningstar UK, the leading provider of independent investment research. This week we take a look at how the economy is fairing in 2017 and ask why you should care about environment, social and governance concerns when investing. Lets dive straight in to our interview with our first guest. Emma Wall, Senior Editor for Morningstar.co.uk speaks with Keith Wade, Chief Economist for Schroders, about the outlook for global economic growth and what threatens expansion. With construction data looking weak, and UK GDP forecasts downgraded, should you be worried about the impact of slow growth on your portfolio? To discuss we have up next Tim Graf, Head of Macro Strategy, EMEA for State Street. Economic growth may be downgraded and UK politics may be in turmoil but Britain's chief executives remain positive explains Phil Harris, Manager of the EdenTree UK Equity Growth Fund up next. The further markets climb the fewer gains there are to be had. Morningstar Investment Management's Mike Coop says investors should be cautious and prepare your portfolio for turbulence. When we make investments, financial return is of course very important to us but it is also important to consider the impact such investments may have on our world. Sustainable investing considers environmental, social and governance factors when going about trying to make financial gains. Environmental issues could be the impact a company has on the environment or how it’s trying to improve the environment with, for example, renewable energy. Social factors include how a company deals with issues such as how fairly it treats and pays its workers, whether partners and suppliers have similar values to their own and governance issues encompasses how well the whole organisation is run from a board level. Is the company accurate and transparent in its financial affairs? Is the company behaving fairly to its shareholders and allowing them to vote on important issues? Or is the company at risk to bribery and corruption? Many people have this belief that investing in this way will lead to inferior returns but Peter Michaelis, Head of Sustainable Investing for Liontrust is up next to tell us why this is not always the case and that investors do not have to choose between ethics and profits Can an ESG Fund Hold Energy and Tobacco Stocks? JP Morgan's Joanna Crompton is up next to explain her best in class approach to sustainable investing, and why all companies should be ESG compliable. Our final guest on todays podcast is ESG investor Camilla Ritchie who runs the 7IM Sustainable Balance Fund. Camilla explains why she is upping her exposure to cash and alternatives as stocks and bonds start to look expensive Subscribe to our podcast on itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/morningstar-uk/id965873075?mt=2 http://www.morningstar.co.uk