It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Ben Slater, Chartered Financial Planner and Director at Stephen Eve Financial Planning Ltd.
As a Financial Adviser, I’m often asked ‘what will stock-markets do next year’. The honest answer is I don’t have a clue, and no one does. The markets have been impacted by ‘once in a lifetime’ events each year since 2020 that anyone making predictions could not have foreseen. I’ll therefore predict how the wider economy is looking, and how this might play into stock markets. I look forward to being proved wrong in 12 months’ time!
Many economic forecasts are seeing another tough year for growth across all sectors and countries, but it’s felt the ‘hard part is over’. We are likely to see inflation continuing to fall, with ‘normal rates’ expected by the end of 2024 after the post Covid, War in Ukraine and ‘Mini Budget’ shocks have passed. This also plays into the labour market, with wage inflation expected to flatten.
It’s felt that most global Central Banks have eased off on interest rate hikes, with the desired goal of slowing inflation achieved. This will help people plan things like re-mortgages and savings with more ease.
All of these factors should therefore see global stock markets perform positively with less volatility. Here’s hoping that we aren’t in for another ‘once in a lifetime’ event and that 2024 will be a little more dull!
We tell all our clients that investing is for the long term, and we are therefore not focused on the next year too much. That said, given the flat and volatile years since 2020, we’re due a positive year and all the economic factors are heading in the right direction.
