Global ETF News Older than One Year
As One Cycle Ends, Another Begins Amid Growing Divergence
January 17, 2025--Growth divergences persist and could widen, while policy shifts may reignite inflation pressures in some countries
We project global growth will remain steady at 3.3 percent this year and next, broadly aligned with potential growth that has substantially weakened since before the pandemic. Inflation is declining, to 4.2 percent this year and 3.5 percent next year, in a return to central bank targets that will allow further normalization of monetary policy.
This will help draw to a close the global disruptions of recent years, including the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which precipitated the largest inflation surge in four decades.
Though the global growth outlook is broadly unchanged from October, divergences across countries are widening. Among advanced economies, the United States is stronger than previously projected on continued strength in domestic demand. We have raised our growth projection for the US this year by 0.5 percentage point, to 2.7 percent.
Source: imf.org
Global Risks Report 2025
January 15, 2025--The 20th edition of the Global Risks Report 2025 reveals an increasingly fractured global landscape, where escalating geopolitical, environmental, societal and technological challenges threaten stability and progress.
Key findings of the report, in which we compare the risk outlooks across the three time horizons.
Declining optimism
As we enter 2025, the global outlook is increasingly fractured across geopolitical, environmental, societal, economic and technological domains.
Over the last year we have witnessed the expansion and escalation of conflicts, a multitude of extreme weather events amplified by climate change, widespread societal and political polarization, and continued technological advancements accelerating the spread of false or misleading information.
Optimism is limited as the danger of miscalculation or misjudgment by political and military actors is high. We seem to be living in one of the most divided times since the Cold War, and this is reflected in the results of the GRPS, which reveal a bleak outlook across all three time horizons – current, short-term and long-term.
Source: World Economic Forum (WEF)
WEF-These are the biggest risks we face now and in the next 10 years
January 15, 2025--After a challenging "super election" year in 2024, leaders face uncertainty about what lies ahead in 2025 and into the future.
The World Economic Forum's latest Global Risks Report reveals a significant carryover of 2024's key concerns while highlighting some new and notable shifts in risk perception.
The report sets the agenda for discussions at the Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, this year convening under the title, Collaboration for the Intelligent Age.
As we leave 2024 behind, a complex "super election" year that tested just about every global system, it's likely with trepidation all leaders are asking: what can we expect in 2025 and beyond?
In this year's World Economic Forum Global Risks Report, based on the annual Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS), the answer is particularly sobering. "Bleak" is the umbrella adjective describing the overall state of things in its current, 2-year and 10-year outlook prediction ranges.
Source: WEF (World Economic Forum)
New WFE Research quantifies the impact of stock exchanges on economic growth
January 6, 2025--The World Federation of Exchanges, the global industry association for exchanges and CCPs (The WFE), has published new research which analyses the link between stock market development and economic growth on a global scale.
The research analysed quarterly data from 36 countries over two decades (2003-2022).
Key findings
Short term analysis:
There is a two-way influence between economic output growth and the stock market capitalisation in the short term, but only for high-income countries.
Low and middle-income countries experience a unidirectional relationship in the short term, where stock market capitalisation positively impacts economic growth, but not vice versa.
This means that low and middle-income country exchanges aren’t seeing a positive impact on their market capitalisation as a result of economic growth, though higher market capitalisation leads to higher economic growth.
Source: WFE (World Federation of Exchanges)
5 transformational trends shaping global finance
January 6, 2025--The global economy has undergone seismic changes since the pandemic.
Major structural shifts are underway, shaped by five fundamental forces:
Deglobalization, decarbonization, debt, digitalization, and demographics.
The global economy is very different now compared with even just a few years ago.
Thanks to tectonic shifts since COVID-19, major structural changes are underway. Deglobalization, decarbonization, demographics, surging debt, and digitalization are all shaping the world’s economy and financial markets.
These five fundamental forces -the "Five D’s"- establish a multi-dimensional decision space for policymakers and investors. They require careful evaluation, as they have the potential for transformational impacts.
Source: weforum.org
7 Predictions For Crypto In 2025: Bitcoin, ETFs & Global Adoption
December 23, 2024-- The year 2024 marked a historic turning point for Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem. It saw the launch of the first Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, signaling genuine institutional adoption. Bitcoin shattered the $100,000 milestone for the first time, while stablecoins continued to reinforce the global dominance of the US dollar.
Adding to this momentum, the winning U.S. presidential candidate made support for Bitcoin a central pillar of his campaign.
Collectively, these milestones cemented 2024 as the year the crypto industry proved itself to be an unstoppable force on the global stage. As the industry shifts its focus to 2025, here are my seven predictions of major events we can expect to take place next year.
1) A major G7 or BRICS nation will establish and announce a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
Source: forbes.com
Indxx Charts New Heights: $40 Billion in Assets Tracking Indxx Indices
December 6, 2024-Indxx, a provider of indexing solutions for exchange traded funds (ETFs), is pleased to announce that assets tracking its indices across the globe have surpassed $40 billion.
For over 15 years, Indxx has been redefining the indexing industry with end-to-end indexing solutions ranging from index development to calculation & administration and data & technology products. Currently, over 175 products track its indices with over $40 billion in assets tracking them. Products tracking Indxx Indices are listed across major geographies worldwide, including the US, Central and South America, UK, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and Australia.
Source: Indxx
Developing Countries Paid Record $1.4 Trillion on Foreign Debt in 2023
December 3, 2024--Financial Squeeze on Poorest Economies Tightened as Private Creditors Retreated
Developing countries spent a record $1.4 trillion to service their foreign debt as their interest costs climbed to a 20-year high in 2023, the World Bank's latest International Debt Report shows. Interest payments surged by nearly a third to $406 billion, squeezing the budgets of many countries in critical areas such as health, education, and the environment.
The financial strain was fiercest for the poorest and most vulnerable countries-those eligible to borrow from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), the data show. These countries paid a record $96.2 billion to service their debt in 2023.
Source: worldbank.org
New report examines how artificial intelligence may shape future of international trade
November 21, 2024--A new report published today (21 November) by the WTO Secretariat discusses the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on world trade. The report examines key trade-related policy considerations raised by this technology and discusses the critical role of the WTO in facilitating AI-related trade, ensuring trustworthy AI, and promoting global regulatory convergence.
The report was launched at an event at the WTO attended by representatives from government, academia and the private sector.
The report, entitled "Trading with Intelligence: How AI Shapes and is Shaped by International Trade", discusses how AI can reduce trade costs, reshape trade in services, increase trade in AI-related goods and services, and redefine economies' comparative advantages. The report also highlights the increasing fragmentation of approaches to AI regulation, which may have a particular impact on trade opportunities for micro, small and medium-sized businesses.
The report provides an overview of government initiatives taken at the domestic, regional and international levels both to promote and to regulate AI.
Source: World Trade Organization (WTO)
OECD GDP growth remains stable in the third quarter of 2024
November 21, 2024--"Gross domestic product (GDP) in the OECD rose by 0.5% in the third quarter of 2024, slightly up from 0.4% in the previous quarter, according to provisional estimates."
Gross domestic product (GDP) in the OECD rose by 0.5% in the third quarter of 2024, slightly up from 0.4% in the previous quarter,1 according to provisional estimates (Figure 1).
The overall GDP growth rate for the G7 remained unchanged in Q3 2024, at 0.5%. This reflects a mixed picture among G7 countries. While growth in the United States remained stable in Q3 at 0.7%, it slowed in Canada and Japan (from 0.5% in Q2 to 0.2% in Q3 in both countries), the United Kingdom (from 0.5% to 0.1%) and Italy (from 0.2% to 0.0%).
The slowdown in Japan mainly reflected contractions in investment (-0.3% in Q3, compared with 1.6% in Q2) and exports of services (-4.2%, compared with 9.4%), the latter mostly due to lower tourism. In Italy, the reduction in growth was related to a negative contribution from net trade (exports minus imports) and mainly reflected a decrease of value added in agriculture, forestry and fishing, and in industry2 (see Italian statistical office). In the United Kingdom, the Q3 slowdown reflected destocking, which was the main drag on growth.
Source: OECD
