Looking ahead to 2016
The economic events of 2015 will come to bear on the global playing field this year
Add BT as a preferred source
"An economist is a surgeon with an excellent scalpel and a rough-edged lancet, who operates beautifully on the dead and tortures the living." - Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794)
FOR all that happened in 2015, one has to wonder if it will be lost in the textbooks as a pretty uneventful year. Sure, it was the year of Ukraine, the Volkswagen scandal, "unicorns", ISIS, China's slowdown, Fed "liftoff" and another chapter in the Greece drama, but what really changed? We believe US and world stock markets will open 2016 within a few percentage points of where they opened in 2015.
Valuations, as measured by P/E ratios, have moved very little. In the bond market, 10-year yields in both the US and Germany are virtually unchanged from 12 months ago. Positive, yet sluggish growth remains the economic background for the US, eurozone and Japan. China is still managing its slowdown, the Fed is tightening, and Greece still isn't out of the woods. You'll forgive us if this year's outlook has a lot in common with 2015.
Share with us your feedback on BT's products and services
