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Three forces shaping growth, inflation, and markets in 2023

Weak economic growth has not been a barrier to stellar market and, in particular, equity returns in the past decade. But economic realities will now likely prove to provide more of an obstacle over the medium term.

    • A vendor waits for customers at a fresh produce store in Madrid, Spain; April 20, 2022. The hit to household real incomes in Europe from the energy crunch is greater than in any other region of the world.
    • A vendor waits for customers at a fresh produce store in Madrid, Spain; April 20, 2022. The hit to household real incomes in Europe from the energy crunch is greater than in any other region of the world. Bloomberg
    Published Fri, Jan 13, 2023 · 02:00 PM

    SINCE the pandemic, our view of the medium-term outlook has shifted to become more pessimistic on inflation and equity market returns while maintaining our overall thesis that the world economy will eventually be characterised by low growth and low inflation once again.

    Three very different forces are shaping the three key regions of the global economy: US excess demand and the associated aggressive monetary tightening; the European energy crunch triggered by the Ukraine-Russia war; and China’s broken growth model. How the different forces will combine adds uncertainty to our outlook.

    In normal times, each shock would have been significant enough to dominate our global research. Now, we are analysing the implications of all three factors for growth, inflation, and markets as each shock works its way through the global economy over 2023 and beyond.

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