$25 trillion wiped off global stock markets in 2022 – WFE data reveals
New data published by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), the global industry group for exchanges and central clearing counterparties, indicates that $25 trillion was wiped off global stock markets in 2022.
WFE’s FY 2022 Market Highlights report reveals that stock markets declined by 20% in market capitalisation and 10% in value traded in 2022, interrupting the positive trend observed in the two previous years.
Factors that caused last year’s slump include the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic which caused inflationary trends fuelled by strong consumer demand and supply bottlenecks exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia, which increased energy prices, especially for European countries.
China’s renewed Covid lockdown, with stringent measures enforced for most of the year, strained the global supply chain, increasing prices of imported goods. Investment cooled down in the equity market as a result of the high inflation environment, alongside the tightening of monetary policies which included raising interest rates across most economies.
Nandini Sukumar, CEO of the WFE said: “We witnessed a perfect storm in 2022 of so many negative pressures culminating to bring immense pressure on global stock markets, as our report highlights.’’
