I trust everybody is back from holiday safe and sound. December was a very good month for investors, but January so far is not looking good. There has been a pullback in all markets for the following reasons.
- US treasury has so far handed out over 13 trillion dollars in covid aid to business. This has resulted in massive spending by the business and private sector which has pushed their inflation from 1.4% to 7% (Even higher than ours)
- The FED is increasing interest rates to curb the spike in inflation. This has resulted in cautious investors moving out of the markets and going into the fixed interest space.
- This is a cycle and will pass and we will see flows back to markets in the near future.
The South African market is still looking robust and we see good growth still coming from here.
We have started moving clients from bonds and fixed income funds which have been doing great the last two years, but the rates are declining as we see our local interest rates starting to climb.
I did an exercise on the Rand/Dollar.
1999 the Rand was R6.00 to 1$
2021 the Rand was R16.00 to 1$