Believe me, I would be happy never to speak of inflation again after its domination of conversations in 2024. Globally, inflation has been hard to shake of late; yet 2025 looks somewhat more promising than previous years. What are analysts predicting moving forward?

We start 2025 with Trump once again being elected as the next President of the United States, and with that comes a sense of great trepidation around the globe. His decisive victory in November left many political pundits and exit polls in shock, as he won both the election and the popular vote—something he failed to do in 2016. Republicans achieved a clean sweep across the board, with Congress also swaying red. As the election result became clear, it left some disheartened, but the markets breathed a collective sigh of relief.

2024 managed to keep the world on its toes when it came to politics. Elections and political turmoil were rife, with the election Supercycle rippling across the world. In the UK, we welcomed Mr Starmer into Number 10 with an overwhelming majority. Yet, his premiership has been fraught with challenges—from demanding the return of "sausages" rather than hostages to his recent expenses scandal.

How is 2025 here already? Perhaps the best place to begin this review is by looking at how the Wall Street expectations for 2024 held up to reality. As always, Bloomberg did the hard work, collating the predictions of the major players in the finance world for the year ahead back in 2023. The likes of Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and UBS all forecasted that the S&P 500 would sit between the range of 3,500 and 5,000.