Finn Øystein Bergh
Chief Economist & Strategist
Financial markets and the economy in 2022
Financial analysis is more than a myopic exercise in indicators and percentages. Lest anyone should think otherwise: The defining event of 2022, by far, was the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The financial world lost no time in condemning it as a horrifying act of aggression but, in retrospect, took far longer to realize the financial consequences. One week after the invasion, the S&P 500 was up almost 4%. At the end of the year, it was an altogether different story.
In times of crisis, capital tends to flow towards the US market, generally considered a safe haven. Not so in 2022. With a loss of 18.1%, the S&P stood out in negative terms. The STOXX Europe 600 was down 10.1% and the MSCI Nordic Countries lost 7.9%, while the FTSE 100 returned 0,9% – in the black. The Norway OSE benchmark lost a mere 1.0%.
That was but one of the surprises in 2022.
Read Finn Øystein Berghs' summary of the financial markets and the economy in 2022: