Falling inflation has lifted consumer confidence in the UK, US and EU, providing a boost to political incumbents ahead of upcoming elections. UK consumer confidence rose across all categories in January, according to GfK, a market research company, a fact which is likely to be welcome news for Rishi Sunak, the prime minister. However, it may take more than improved consumer confidence to turn around the 14 per cent approval rating of the current UK government, which must call an election within a year. In the US sentiment rose sharply in both December and January, reaching its highest level since

The new year starts with most advanced economies either in, or approaching, recession. The enormous monetary and fiscal stimulus of the COVID period secured an unprecedented bounceback from the steepest recession ever. But that stimulus has driven aggregate demand above aggregate supply (still scarred by COVID) in many countries, kindling inflation; and Russia’s pointless invasion of Ukraine has fuelled the inflationary fire. Meanwhile the support to financial markets from ultra-loose monetary policy has been removed, as central bankers focus on restoring inflation to target. One way of assessing the bearishness of investors as the new year begins is to look

The views expressed in this article are the views of the author, not necessarily those of Refinitiv Lipper or LSEG. One of the things that economists (mostly) agree on is that more trade is good. This view underpinned the rise of globalisation between the ‘90s and early ‘00s. In those years policymakers became complacent due to the successes of globalisation and allowed problems at society level to brew. We are now experiencing the consequences of the policy mistakes made during those years. The shift towards an integrated global economy and away from the dominance of individual national economies, which was

At the time of writing, with more than a month of this febrile year to go, putting a lid on 2021 is asking for trouble. And as for making predictions for next year… well, as economist JK Galbraith said, the only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable. So here goes.   Defining Green This year has been a bumper one for environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds. A total of £37.3bn flowed into alternatives, bond, equity, and mixed-assets funds in the UK between January and October this year. In particular, we’ve noted a rotation out of

A few weeks ago, we touched on Lipper Loan Participation Funds and how the recent rise in yields has led to a significant increase in weekly net flows. Today, we pivot and dive into the Lipper Inflation Protected Bond Funds classification. The Lipper Inflation Protected Bond Funds classification—including both conventional mutual funds and ETFs—realized a quarterly record of inflows in Q1 (+$19.2 billion) despite a negative Q1 return on average (-0.62%). For context, their average quarterly net flow dating back to 2003 is positive $1.7 billion. This Lipper classification saw net outflows this past fund-flows week for the first time

Ten years ago last Wednesday marked the start for many observers of the global financial crisis – a series of rolling credit shocks and bank crashes that led to the deepest world recession for a generation and a decade of slow growth and painful repair. On Aug. 9, 2007, the European Central Bank flooded its money markets with billions of euros of emergency cash to prevent a seizure in the European banking system after France’s BNP Paribas became the latest to shut down investment funds hobbled by a collapse of U.S. mortgage and asset-backed bond markets. Serial bank collapses in