The global economic and investment landscape at the beginning of 2024 bears some similarities to the start of last year. Stock markets that are performing well — Japan, the US and Europe, as well as India — have advanced in the range of 3-15%, while emerging markets such as Thailand, Hong Kong and China have shrunk by 2-5%.
This is in line with world economic data, in particular the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) figures of large economies, which continue to expand.
The outlook is encouraging even though some important indicators such as GDP, retail sales and industrial production have slowed, amid falling inflation after central banks raised interest rates to the highest levels in decades. Overall, the world…
