Don’t worry, be happy?

Investor sentiment has been tested so far this year. Panic over the uncontrolled fall in the oil price and concerns over global growth sent stock indices tumbling with some entering bear market territory – a drop of 20% or more from their cyclical highs. Doom prophets re-emerged from the side-lines, calling for a global recession. The International Monetary Fund revised down its global growth forecasts and world growth for this year was lowered from 3.6% to 3.4%. South Africa’s GDP growth outlook for  this year was cut to a meagre 0.7%. The IMF’s revisions overshadowed data from China which showed that the economy actually stabilised towards the end of last year. Full year growth was the lowest  in 25 years, but at 6.9% it was in line with their government’s target of 7%. The underlying data showed that the slow transitions towards a more consumer orientated economy was  still in place.

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