In fact, we are likely to start the next decade with geopolitical risk becoming a recurring theme in global markets largely because of the increasing divisiveness brought forth by a growing inequality of income in many parts of the world. A low-growth, highly indebted world has accentuated these differences. Since the GFC, topics such as terrorism, cybersecurity, integration in the Economic and Monetary Union and the various trade conflicts have made repeated headlines.
(Dec 20): This decade will end pretty much the way it started: Global central banks embarking on loose monetary policy and quantitative easing to counter slowing GDP growth. In 2019, global economic growth seems to have fallen to a post-global financial crisis (GFC) low, owing to economic slowdowns in the US, Europe and China.
However, that is where the similarities end. While the dismal growth rates in the early 2010s were largely because of the fallout from the GFC in 2008, the decade ahead is likely to look quite different. Populism and protectionism are the new buzzwords, compared with the era of globalisation the decades before.
