Favourable long-term trends for the electric-vehicle market remain intact – but an excess supply of battery metals means the outlook for miners remains clouded.

In the first issue of our new quarterly publication, we update our forecasts for 2024 on the macroeconomic front, as well as for equities, fixed income, commodities and foreign exchange.

Sustainable food systems (SFS) deliver food security and nutrition in ways that are sustainable in economic, social and environmental terms. Transitioning towards sustainable food systems could open up business opportunities worth USD4.5 trillion per year by 2030.

India, the world’s largest democracy, is heading to a national vote, with results expected by the end of May. Almost one billion registered voters will make this the biggest election exercise anywhere, ever.

The empowerment of women in the labour force is important in ways that go beyond the critical matter of social justice. Female financial inclusion and gender equality are “macrocritical” to boosting economic activity.

In a year that has been claimed to be the busiest in history for political elections, there will be no bigger event in the calendar than the race to be President of the United States, due to be held on November 5th.

Strategic asset allocation for private clients starts with detailed knowledge of an investor’s risk profile, investment horizon, and performance targets, among other considerations.

For investors, digitisation provides a wide range of investment alternatives, with business activities such as cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), digital entertainment, and others showing substantial growth potential.

Consumers are holding up relatively well in the U.S. and Europe, despite a weaker economic environment. This could yield interesting opportunities in the stock market, particularly in the area of discretionary consumption.

Compared to the eurozone overall, Greece could experience slightly higher economic growth in the coming years, in particular due to a resurgence in private consumption.

ESG investment has gone mainstream, with performance implications. Energy transition may point the way to investing in the sustainable economy.

Adherence to strong convictions in the face of market-moving events can potentially trigger undesirable timing mistakes. Asymmetric strategies can allow more potential upside for a given portfolio risk.

After years of extremely low interest rates, the investment universe is now complete again thanks to the renewed attractiveness of bonds as an asset class – and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future in our opinion.

U.S. growth stocks are probably still the way to go for the long term. European and Japanese financials could appeal too, as well as consumer discretionary, industrials and energy.

Be aware that measures to create stability may just create new risks. Rates are still on our radar.

Robust earnings growth is expected globally in 2024. Expectations of higher rates for longer may however put a lid on valuations expansion.

We see these as the key global challenges: how to sustainably utilise and conserve our global resources; how to provide for the global population, and how to develop key technologies to help us all do this.

Expect only moderate growth in industrialised economies in 2024. The long-term challenge remains the delivery of investments to enhance economic competitiveness and fight climate change.

Domestic political developments are increasingly shaping foreign policy agendas – and 2024 will be the biggest election year in history.

Despite the economic, geopolitical and climatic challenges the world currently faces, we think that 2024 is likely to be a decent year for investors. In our annual outlook we present our current economic and asset class forecasts for 2024, possible key issues for the coming 12 months and our long-term investment themes.

The Spanish economy has shown remarkable resilience during 2023, but the latest indicators point to a slowdown. A complex political environment will make it more difficult to address some important challenges.

In our new CIO Special – U.S. Election: Running up that hill, we explore the political landscape of the upcoming Presidential elections, key issues that will shape the narrative for the race and its potential impact for investors.