What can we glean from the UK Autumn Statement?

The prospect of the rather unexciting combination of lower productivity growth, cyclical slowdown, higher inflation and lower interest rates. Lower interest rates are generally good for the economy but not for pensioners and savers as they are unable to keep up with the inflation (with the Bank of England forecasting 2.7 per cent rise in the final quarter of 2017)

Slower productivity growth is based on several unknown elements of the Brexit process which may lead to lower corporate investment. The cyclical slowdown also comes from uncertainty hitting investment by businesses and higher inflation hitting the spending power of consumers.

Higher inflation is caused by the weaker pound increasing the cost of imports.

Although the forecast is downbeat it is largely based on events that have already happened. From the investor perspective, UK and European Stock Markets are likely to remain sluggish in the near term. Fixed interest instruments like UK Gilts offer only very low yields, around 2%.

Whereas, if one is prepared to shop around an investor can find good yields amongst Peer-to-Peer(P2P) secure lending platforms. For pensioners looking for a way to grow their nest egg or for those in drawdown, Peer to Peer offers a good yield of between 6 and 10%. With portfolio spread an investor can reduce risk to acceptable levels.