First and Worst: Mercer Table 2022 Asset Class Returns

According to Matthew 20:16 and mostly Mercer 2022, “Therefore the last shall be the first, and the first shall be the last,” said the Lord.

In fact, it is the latest and best performing asset class in Mercer NZ over the long term.Periodic table of investment returns‘ is the first and last.

“Commodities will be the dominant asset class in 2022 (+15.3%), impacted by the war in Ukraine and China’s strict zero-Covid policy, both of which have constrained supply and accelerated inflation,” Mercer said. NZ investment consultant Neil Cannell said. “Despite strong returns over the past two years, commodities remain the weakest asset class in a decade.”

If commodities rarely had a zenith moment in 2022, the poignant journey of international-listed real estate over the past three years fits right in with Bible prophecies.

“Global listed real estate (-24.0%) finished last on the periodic table this year, posting the biggest year-on-year decline (-53%) and the lowest annual return of any asset class in the entire decade. I did,” says Cannell. “Investors in this sector have been on a rampage in recent years, and from last place in 2020 (even if the Covid-19 outbreak didn’t help) he bounced back to number two in 2021. After that, this year we are back at the bottom.”

Over the past decade, global listed real estate has remained middling in Mercer’s rankings, with a long-term annualized return of 4.8%, but this isn’t the only asset class to have a dismal year in 2022.

Last year, hedge funds, New Zealand direct real estate and local cash-bonded commodities were just four asset classes with positive results in the Black Zone.

“This was the lowest percentage of positive returns in the last decade. The next lowest positive return was six in 2018 (the next year all asset classes produced positive returns – hmm? ),” says Cannell. “This was in contrast to 2021 where he was positive in 14 of the 16 asset classes (many were healthy in his double digits). The year-on-year increase is not surprising.”

But while the range of top-to-bottom returns of 39% in 2022 was about average (below the peak spread of 55% in 2021), the calendar year was the worst of the decade. he says.

“To highlight how negative 2022 was, 37 of the 160 annual returns over the decade were negative, and nearly a third (12) of them were in 2022. Periodic table.”

Of course, the market is far-sighted, but Mercer’s rear-view analysis highlights the difficulty of picking short-term asset class winners (or losers) in the game. Very few were chosen.”