What will drive the 2011 investment environment?

ON EUROPE

Thames River's Randeep Grewal examines the top factors that will affect Europe this year.

Now is an opportune time to consider the major questions that are likely to influence the investment environment in 2011. Top on my list of questions is what the final resolution for Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain will be and the implications for the euro. Could German party and state politics throw a spanner in the works of any plans agreed in Brussels? The impact of interest rate rises on government, corporate and personal debt and cashflows is also at the forefront of my mind. The risk of ‘bond vigilantes’ imposing higher interest rates on governments and forcing them to restruct...