To give income, with the potential for some long-term capital growth, by investing mainly in multi manager funds.
Government bond prices have been subject to wild swings over the past six months. They performed poorly from April to mid-June as investors focused on the threat of inflation, but recovered much of the lost ground through to September as recession fears came to the fore once more. Corporate bonds have performed poorly in the review period, but particularly in September when a succession of bank failures and government bailouts resulted in the worst single-month performance on record.This was an exceptionally challenging period for equity markets. A wave of bankruptcies, bail-outs and mergers in the banking sector led to concerns over the stability of the global financial system This prompted central banks and governments into making concerted and co-ordinated attempts to restore confidence.Looking ahead, SWIP expects the UK and overseas equity markets will be higher in 12 months' time. However investors will have to endure some further ups and downs.