It is the time of the year when people reflect on the past year and wonder what the new year will have in store. So let’s take stock of 2022.
Economically, it wasn’t an easy year for many of us (if you know Billy Joel’s song ‘We didn’t start the fire’, follow the beat while reading this paragraph; if you don’t, now would be an excellent time to listen to it). Economic growth was a rollercoaster ride (down in the first quarter, up in the second and third, and down again in the fourth), inflation hit a 30-year high, labour shortages caused problems for businesses, and interest rates have increased sharply.