Barclays Wealth analyst forecasts US interest on the rise at the Intra-Business Network conference in Dubai

The Intra Business Network (I.B.N) was established in 2001 as an Africa-centric networking platform to bring together key business heads with the aim of pursuing and further developing their business interests in Africa. Today, IBN is a membership network of over 100 influential, high net-worth entrepreneurs from across Africa and abroad who share a common vision of engaging in strategic business alliances, joint ventures and networking.

As part of the conference, Bill O'Neil, Head of Asset Allocation, presented Barclays wealth management business, products and market views. He also discussed the Middle Eastern/ African research on the currencies, interest rates and oil pricing.

"Barclays have a controversial call on US interest rates in 2007. Unlike most people in the market Barclays think the move in US interest rates will be up and not down. Barclays expect growth to bounce back strongly in the second half, forcing spare capacity lower and forcing the Fed to address this via higher interest rates," said Bill O'Neil.

Bill explained that this is a bad news for bonds but equities should perform well. Barclays is looking for oil prices to move up and the dollar to weaken later in 2007. Barclays has a $72 pbl target for the oil price by the end of the year.