Be proactive and watch mega trends like AI in 2024: BlackRock
The Straits Times|December 09, 2023
Expect to deploy more risk amid greater volatility, says investment giant’s research arm
Be proactive and watch mega trends like AI in 2024: BlackRock

Ven Sreenivasan Associate Editor & Senior Columnist The world is entering an era of greater macro and market volatility, which is creating more uncertainty and dispersion of returns.

This requires a more proactive investment strategy when building portfolios.

That is the key advice of BlackRock Investment Institute (BII), the research arm of global investment giant BlackRock.

"This is not a time to switch on the investing autopilot; it's time to take the controls," BII declared in its 2024 Global Outlook report released this week. "It's important to be deliberate in taking portfolio risk and expect to deploy more risk over the next year." Prepared by BlackRock vicechairman Philipp Hildebrand, and BII head Jean Boivin and his team, and released on Dec 6, the report said the world is entering a phase of slower growth, higher inflation, higher interest rates and greater volatility.

Although the United States economy seems robust, it is still growing at a below-trend rate of 1.8 per cent since the Covid-19 pandemic, BII said. And despite its seeming strength, the US jobs market is simply reflecting the recouping of about 22 million jobs lost when the pandemic struck. The tight labour market is symptomatic of a worker shortage as a growing share of the US population ages into retirement.

"Something has changed - and it's structural in nature," the report said, referring to the investment environment. "We are on a weaker growth path and got here with more inflation, higher interest rates and much higher debt levels.

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