‘The UK is like an emerging market now’ thanks to Brexit, says veteran investor Mark Mobius

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Mark Mobius criticized Brexit and the UK in remarks at an event in New York, the Financial Times wrote.
"The UK is riding on the coat-tails of the EU, in the sense that [the UK] can have very low interest rates."
Ratings agencies will likely downgrade the UK’s creditworthiness post-Brexit, he said.

Government chaos and wild currency swings are making the UK look more and more like a fledgling, still-developing economy. So says Mark Mobius, the 82-year-old veteran investor and head of Mobius Capital Partners, according to the Financial Times. The fallout from Britain’s decision to leave the European Union will hammer the economy and currency, he said.

"The UK is like an emerging market now," Mobius said at an event in New York, the FT wrote. "Their balance of payments is terrible; their government debt is terrible; their fiscal debt is terrible."

"Up to now, the UK is riding on the coat-tails of the EU, in the sense that [the UK] can have very low interest rates," said Mobius, who is also an alum of Franklin Templeton in New York. The newspaper said the event where Mobius spoke was hosted by the Emerging Markets Investors Alliance.

"As soon as they break, people are going to start looking hard and fast. The rating agencies will say: ‘Wait a minute, no more EU association? We’ve got to downgrade.’"

Like other business leaders in the City of London, Mobius said he’s considering moving his firm to another European city to secure financial "passporting" rights when Britain leave the EU.

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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Trista Kelley)