Welcome to the fifth edition of THE TREASURY HUB Banking and Treasury Markets Bulletin of 2022. The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to impact on financial markets but there is a lot of volatility in other areas also since our bulletin last month:

• Inflation is still a hot topic 
• Interest rates have steadied somewhat after a sustained period of increasing 
• Energy prices remain stubbornly high 
• FX rates have also bounced around a lot with USD making significant gains 
• Crypto currencies have taken a bashing 
• Tech stocks have also suffered more than most other sectors in 2022 
• An oil company (Saudi Aramco) replaced Apple as the world’s largest company by market cap…. who said fossil fuels are a thing of the past?

We have warned for some time in this bulletin that the key inflation metric to watch is food inflation given the impact of it on everyone and we see it as the main driver of wages hike pressures. Consumer habits will also change as a result and discretionary spend is already taking a hit with subscriptions to the likes of Netflix and Peloton being adversely impacted.

Last month we stated that from a risk management perspective, it looks like the most volatile period in markets, financial and otherwise, since 2008 and, in some cases, since the 1970s. This is a view that we continue to hold.

Please get in touch with our Corporate Finance team if we can be of any assistance.

The Treasury Hub - Banking and Treasury Report May 22 can be downloaded here.

For any queries relating to this newsletter, please contact Chris Ball, Partner.