Global household wealth is on track for its first significant contraction since the great financial crisis of 2008, according to a report by Allianz.

After three years of record gains in the value of household financial assets, 2022 is likely to result in a nominal drop of more than two per cent, researchers said in a global wealth report published Wednesday. They called this year a “turning point” for global wealth, amid scant signs that a meaningful reversal will follow. 

“Monetary tightening is squeezing economies and markets -- household wealth will feel the pinch,” Allianz said the report. “In real terms, households will lose a tenth of their wealth.”

 
Russia’s war on Ukraine has choked the post-pandemic economic recovery and caused food and energy prices to soar, forcing central banks across the globe to raise borrowing costs. 

Most stock markets are very likely to end the year “in the red,” Allianz said, adding that it’s unclear whether recent interest in equities as an asset class will prevail in some parts of the world amid the subdued return prospects.

“In contrast to the Great Financial Crisis, which was followed by a relatively swift turnaround -- not least in asset markets -- this time around the mid-term outlook, too, is rather bleak: The average growth of financial assets is expected to be at 4.6 per cent until 2025, compared with 10.4 per cent in the preceding three years,” according to the report.