The easy money era ended last year, as the U.S. Federal Reserve raised rates at the fastest pace since the 1980s to control 40-year high inflation. The COVID-19 pandemic has eased, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has reached a stalemate, and the global economy is now adjusting to long-lasting impacts that will usher in new investment themes.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced governments to focus more on alternative sources of energy, increasing demand for both fossil fuels and industrial metals at a time when global supplies have been constrained in the last decade. Historically, whenever a new energy source is unearthed, it has been added to the existing energy mix rather than completely replacing the older source.