Buffett warns fixed-income investors of bleak future

NEW DELHI: Ace investor

Warren Buffett is of the view that fixed-income investors might face a bleak future.

In his letter to the shareholders of Berkshire

Hathaway, Buffet said: "Fixedincome investors worldwide -whether pension funds, insurance companies or retirees

-- face a bleak future."

He also said that bonds are not the place to be these days. "Can you believe that the income recently available from a 10-year US Treasur y bond -- the yield was 0.93% at yearend -had fallen 94% from the 15.8% yield available in September 1981? In certain large and important countries, such as Germany and Japan, investors earn a negative return on trillions of dollars of sovereign debt," he wrote.

He noted that some insurers, as well as other bond investors, "may tr y to juice the pathetic returns now available by shif ting their purchases to obligations backed by shaky borrowers". Risky loans, however, are not the answer to inadequate interest rates, added the Oracle of Omaha.