West Midlands exporters are in line to benefit from Europe’s decision to introduce quantitative easing, according to Birmingham Post columnist John Wyn-Evans, head of investment strategy at Investec Wealth and Investment.
He believes the move to boost liquidity will stimulate demand.
Mr Wyn-Evans said: “It has to be positive for exporters.
“Europe is still our single largest trade partner. Europe’s slack economic growth has been one of the reasons why our export performance has been not as good as that of our recovery.
“The supply is there but the demand is not. Stimulating demand in Europe will certainly help West Midland exporters. You need more than a cheap currency; you need somebody who wants to buy what you are offering.”
His comments came in the firm’s annual Vision seminar held at Opus Restaurant in Birmingham.
Turning to the oil price tumble, Mr Wyn-Evans said it represented a “quasi tax cut” for consumers.
He went on: “It is a large dividend for the world. It effectively releases two per cent of GDP for consumption spending on other things.”
The only downside might be high rollers heavily into oil cutting back on luxury items such as expensive watches and top end cars.
But the oil price collapse would likely take time to feed through to industry in terms of reductions in transport and energy costs.
Meanwhile uncertainty over the outcome of the General Election would have only a limited effect on the economy, but was likely to see a weakening of sterling.
