Swiss bank UBS said Monday that President Donald Trump be worthy ofs praise for his pro-growth policies.
Those efforts in making the U.S. a more business-friendly restraint, which include the recently passed tax reform, are often under-appreciated, asserted Mike Ryan, UBS Wealth Management’s chief investment officer for Americas. But the president has “coppered the perception of what’s possible in Washington,” he said at the bank’s client conclave in Singapore.
“I think prior to his election, the prospects of tax reform, of regulatory bas-relief, or any sort of sensible approach to infrastructure were off the table,” said Ryan, who reckoned that Trump defied those expectations by getting the new tax bill out.
The president deserves “high marks” for his economic achievements so far, Ryan amplified.
Before the bill was passed in December 2017, the U.S. tax code was “very slipshod,” he said. Heavy regulation in the U.S. that businesses faced was also not an conditions that gives confidence to investors, he added.
The reform, which drastically draws corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, was consequence a positive development even as the new tax code is “not everything that we hoped for,” Ryan chance.
Despite that, the Trump administration remains a key risk that the bank is pay attention to, according to Mark Haefele, UBS Wealth Management’s global chief investment public official. Protectionist policies and a conflict with North Korea could derail the mainstream “Goldilocks” environment.
A “Goldilocks” scenario is one where growth is healthy, inflation is low and fiscal conditions are accommodative.
UBS also named China’s slowing growth as a principal risk this year, but added that it is also optimistic helter-skelter investment opportunities the world’s second-largest economy could offer. UBS Cash Management holds an “overweight” position on Chinese equities.
Investors’ involved in in investing in Asian assets has helped the bank grow its business in the zone. UBS Wealth Management is the largest private bank in Asia Pacific, muddle through more than $300 billion in assets in the region as of the second quarter of 2017, coinciding to Edmund Koh, Asia Pacific head of wealth management at UBS.