But seriously, two things coming together and being integral parts of each other. These are very similar to the themes that pervaded our global operating environment in 2014. In 2014, there were two themes that dominated the global operating environment – 1) uneven global growth and 2) divergent monetary policies in advanced economies.
As the US economic growth continued to gain traction and the US Fed subsequently ended its asset purchase program in October last year, markets began to interpret the Fed’s statements to mean that it would begin “lift off” (or raise the Fed Funds target rate) sometime this year. In contrast, EU and Japan remained barely able to eke out growth.