Finance expert forecasts more economic turmoil

Economic turmoil will lead gold and the dollar to higher levels in the next two or three years, Jim Rogers, an investment and finance expert, said Thursday.

Pointing out the gold prices will fall sharply, "The dollar will rise and gold will turn into a bubble in five or six years' time," Rogers said.

Despite people''s interest in investing in dollar as a safe haven, Rogers said he preferred gold instead. However he expects that the gold price will drop in the long term.

"I never sold my gold," Rogers said. "For many years I will be buying gold."

He said currency turmoil would push up the value of the dollar and of gold. But he said that would not last, and the price of gold would drop within five or six years.

"I hope I am smart enough, if it becomes a bubble someday, and I will sell my gold and move on to something else," he said.

Rogers said that emerging countries had failed to use the luxury of cheap money to fundamentally change economies, and now they will pay the price.

"Emerging countries will suffer greatly from the upcoming economic crisis," Rogers said. "The global increase in the interest rate will put the central banks of developing countries in trouble, since they will need to attract more funds to finance the economy."

Rogers said that he expected a property bubble in the UK in a couple of years due to rising interest rates, adding that in Asia housing prices have already started to go down.

"Interest rates will go up and a lot of property bubbles are going to pop," he said.

Pointing out to the political turmoil in Ukraine and Iraq, Rogers said there is a high probability of an increase in energy prices.

"I would not sell energy, if I were you," he said. "Energy reserves around the world are in decline. Energy prices will go higher eventually."

Rogers is a renowned businessman and investor, the co-founder with George Soros of the Quantum Fund, and the creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index.