By Elliot Gulliver-Needham The £1bn “ugly duckling” Ruffer Investment Company has reported a tough year after making wrong calls about the path of the economy, but analysts hope that the long-term bets made by the trust will pay off. After betting on a lengthy downturn for the global economy, Ruffer has loaded up on protection assets in recent years to balance out the risk of an economic crash. This move hasn’t paid off. Over the last year, the trust’s net asset value grew only one per cent, compared to 13 per cent for the FTSE All Share index. The recent under-performance suffered by Ruffer w…