High inflation has precipitated a slowdown in developed economies’ growth, with Europe facing the highest risk of stagflation due to the ongoing energy crisis. Central banks face a dilemma of high inflation and slowing growth, but remain on the hawkish side for the time being. The ECB is probably facing the most complex situation. While fiscal intervention might come to the rescue in order to cushion the blow from rising energy prices, political uncertainty is high as we enter the second half of the year: US mid-term elections, shockwaves in Europe from the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia, elections in India and Brazil are likely to keep financial markets' volatility at high levels.

One man's loss is another man's gain. While petrol prices are skyrocketing, oil companies are generating nearly five times more profit from refining than a year ago. We offer an explanation.

The BOJ (Bank of Japan) will become the first central bank in history to hold more than 50% of its country's public debt securities. This is an unprecedented situation with some key risks attached to it.

With the imminent launch of ‘Apple Pay Later’, the American giant continues to expand its financial services offering. To the point of soon becoming a bank?

Economic growth is likely to remain positive during the second half of the year, supported by the reopening of the Chinese economy.

Central banks have to re-learn to live with inflationary pressures and to normalize their monetary policy. Households are concerned by a decline of their real purchasing power, but healthy consumption levels can hold as long as unemployment remains low and wages increase. Businesses are seeing their profitability threatened by rising input costs. The trajectory of inflation in the months ahead will be a key variable of the economic environment.

With monetary policies tightening, speculative bubbles are bursting one after the other. SPACs are no exception.

Boosted by soaring crude oil prices, Saudi Aramco recently overtook Apple as the world's largest market capitalisation.

Global stocks market indices are on the cusp of entering bear market territory, being down around 20% from their late 2021 all-time-highs. What would be the main triggers for a sustainable rebound of equity markets?

Global equity markets are nearing bear market territory, being down nearly 20% from their recent peak. The acceleration of the market pullback seems to indicate that investors are starting to anticipate a “hard-landing” of the global economy. In other words, they fear that central banks will fail to tame inflation without triggering a recession or sharp economic downturn. This risk shouldn’t be dismissed. However, we believe that the “soft landing” scenario has merit.