Davos billionaires talked about threats to the global economy

The billionaires gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, fear terrorism, low oil prices and the escalation of the situation in Ukraine, according to a Bloomberg survey. They also almost unanimously expect the US Federal Reserve to keep interest rates at a record low for a long time.

“Everything is very uncertain right now, and the Fed will not increase rates until the end of 2015 or the beginning of 2016,” said Denis O’Brien, head of telecommunications corporation Digicel Group.

According to him, the deterioration of trade relations between Russia, the US and the EU is the main geopolitical risk for the global economy in 2015. He expressed the opinion that the United States and Europe have chosen the wrong approach in relations with Russia. The most important task of Washington, Brussels and the EU, he called the prevention of default of Ukraine.

Indian billionaire Adi Godrej, owner of the multidisciplinary Godrej Group, expects oil prices to remain at $ 45 per barrel by the end of December 2015 and believes that the Fed will still raise rates in the middle of the year, with rates going to grow in stages.

According to him, the main threat to world stability is the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and if he had free $ 100 million, he would have spent them on Picasso's canvases, rather than stocks, dollars or gold.

Another representative of India, Rahul Badjad, identified terrorism and rising income inequality as global risks. He is ready to invest only in a family business, including motorcycle manufacturer Bajaj Auto.

The only billionaire from Italy among the forum participants, founder and chairman of the board of footwear maker Geox Mario Moretti Polegato, said that he was most concerned about the negative trends in European politics, in particular, the rise of populist parties. According to the 62-year-old businessman, oil will rise to $ 70 per barrel by the end of the year, and he called stocks the best investment.

The founder of the operator of call centers TeleTech Holdings American Kenneth Tuchmen is less optimistic about the oil market. He notes that the main geopolitical risk in 2015 will be coup d'état caused by low oil prices, which, according to his expectations, will cost about $ 60 per barrel by the beginning of next year.

At the same time, the Fed will not rush to raise interest rates and will take such a move no earlier than the fourth quarter of the year, the 2015-year-old billionaire believes.

Russian businessman David Yakobashvili, chairman of the board of directors of the Bioenergy Corporation, said in an interview with Bloomberg that American rates are unlikely to be raised this year because the country's economy is growing and the Fed will not want to scare off investors. Yakobashvili also does not expect oil prices to rise from current levels and believes that military conflicts pose the greatest threat to peace. “Solving economic problems is not as difficult as stopping military escalation,” he said.

Software developer Pegasystems founder Alan Trefler, who became a billionaire in 2013 as his company's shares soared but lost that status last year as the firm's stock fell 20%, called radicalization the world's main danger. "It's a divisive force that affects every aspect of society - economics, politics, culture - and affects specific individuals," said the businessman, whose father immigrated to the United States after World War II as a Holocaust survivor.

According to him, the dollar and shares are not cheap now, and gold is for pessimists. “I would invest in the next Picasso painting that comes on the market,” Trefler said. “I could tell you what kind of painting it is, but I’m afraid it would interfere with my plans to buy it.”

According to Bloomberg, the forum in Davos is going to be visited by more than a hundred billionaires, including 25 from the USA, 15 from India and 8 from Russia.

Source - INTERFAX.RU