Quarterly financial markets update: Financial markets in 2010
Document ID: 2011-2057
Published on: 7th January 2011
Author: Harry Hibbert, Zhuoshi Liu, and Paolo Zagaglia
Financial markets experienced a bumpy journey along the road to recovery in 2010. Fears of sovereign default in Europe have driven episodes of reappraisal of risk in government bond markets and flight-to-safety across a broad spectrum of asset classes.
At the public-policy level, the revival of market intervention in the U.S. and Europe, along with the subsequent discussion on exit measures, have stressed the divergences in the policy cycles across the economic areas. Investors have also been confronted with global unevenness of recovery in consumption and investment spending. It is likely that events over 2010 reflect a sobering of expectations after the probable overshooting of market recovery in 2009. This recovery will likely continue, albeit at a more moderate pace, as it enters a more mature phase.
This document contains a summary of key developments in financial markets for GBP, EUR, USD and JPY.
