Global Investment Views - December 2022
Markets have seen some relief in a year that overall is likely to be remembered as among the most challenging for investors.
Monday 16 November 2020
Research / Market
There are many pitfalls looming. Some concern China, the United States and Europe, while others are more targeted, notably on China or on the relationship between China and the United States. Some traps concern geopolitics (the Thucydides trap, the Kindleberger trap, the Herodotus trap, the Tacitus trap, the Chamberlain - Daladier trap and the cold war trap), while others deal with purely economic issues (the middle-income trap, the inflation trap, the stagflation trap and the debt trap). All the traps are real, and some of them already materialised, at least partially: China cannot rule some functions of power yet, some old powers have clear ambitions (China, Turkey, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia notably), Xi Jinping statements are listened to with great perplexity / suspicion (as was also the case for D. Trump); and some cold war elements are very noticeable between the United States and China...
Markets have seen some relief in a year that overall is likely to be remembered as among the most challenging for investors.
Biodiversity, or the term used to describe all living organisms and ecosystems of which they are part, is declining at an alarming rate with now 1 million (out of an estimated 8 million) plant and animal species being threatened with extinction.
At its December meeting, the ECB hiked rates by 50bp, to 2.0% (deposit rate). The Bank delivered a very hawkish statement.