Nigel Green is warning pensioners that UK annuity rates could fall by as much as 4% as German Purchasing Managers’ Index recently fell to its lowest level since June 2009.

The CEO explained that investors could therefore now flee to UK gilts, thereby raising prices and reducing yields – and thus annuity rates.

In addition, the CEO of the deVere Group also stated that as the Euro-zone crisis  keeps deepening, more and more people are transferring their British pensions out of the UK into an HMRC-recognised QROPS. Nigel Green said that, “more and more expats want to take control of their own pensions. They are moving to QROPS and looking to improve their returns”.

Notably, UK annuity rates have been cut 14 times since July of this year alone and as such, a further cut would mean that savers who are about to retire are very much likely to end up with a permanently lower income in retirement.