GIC chief warns 'divisive trends' to stay for years

[SINGAPORE] One of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds said "divisive trends" in areas such as economics, technology and geopolitics will remain for some time, meaning investors will have to be more nimble to be profitable.

Lim Chow Kiat, the chief executive officer of Singapore's GIC, identified this "great dispersion" as a force that needs assessing in order to re-imagine the future as the world undergoes big changes.

He also warned that large policy interventions undertaken by governments to avert economic collapse due to the coronavirus pandemic aren't by themselves a long-term solution.

"The resulting low interest rates, debt piles and heavy financial market reliance on policy support could lead to large distortions of economic decisions, macro instability and market fragility," Mr Lim said in a GIC Insights report released on Friday.

"We expect the economic environment to be volatile and challenging."

Most emergency spending and lending have gone toward relieving short-term pressures and are a liquidity bridge, he said, adding that solvency remains an issue.

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As to how investors need to adapt and adjust to the resulting wide dispersion of outcomes, Mr Lim suggested looking under market aggregates and indices more thoroughly, as important risks and opportunities may be hidden in them.

BLOOMBERG