The Counterpoint SCI Global Property Income Fund will change it's name to Merchant West SCI Global Property Income Fund, effective from 13 March 2023

Market Overview
To slow the pace of rapidly rising consumer prices, central banks throughout the world started raising interest rates at the beginning of 2022. A combination of supply chain bottlenecks, increased geopolitical tensions and an energy crisis in Europe pushed global consumer price inflation to multi-decade highs, forcing central banks to respond. The US Federal Reserve has been very aggressive in its efforts to curb inflation, raising official interest rates by 425 basis points in 2022. In the fourth quarter, the Federal Open Market Committee met twice to set policy rates, raising the Federal Funds rate by 75 basis points following the conclusion of their November meeting, before slowing the pace of rate hikes to 50 basis points at their December meeting.

Interest rates are expected to rise further although there is growing evidence that consumer inflation has peaked and is expected to fall towards 3% by the end of 2023. The likelihood of a recession in the US remains high, given the sharp rise in short-term interest rates and the prognosis is no different for the UK and Europe. China’s economy is likely to buck the global trend and grow faster in 2023 as the country emerges from very strict COVID restrictions which hampered growth in both 2021 and 2022.

During the fourth quarter, global bond yields responded to the aggressive rate hiking by central banks. Having risen sharply since the start of the year, the yield on 10-year US Treasuries only rose by 5 basis points between September and December. In response to the 125 basis points of official interest rate hikes in the fourth quarter, the move in 2-year US Treasuries was a little more pronounced at 15 basis points. In the United Kingdom, the yield on 10-year gilts continued to fall as Rishi Sunak replaced Liz Truss as Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party, immediately reversing controversial economic policies announced by Truss and her Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, in September.