and betting services. michael, if you look at the ftse 100 index of top uk shares, you wouldn t think the economy was stagnating it has hit several new record highs this week. why is that? good morning victoria. i think what we ve seen over the course of the past few weeks and months has been the fact that all stock markets around the world have rallied quite strongly from their october lows and the reason for that is because the interest rate outlook, especially gilt yields, treasury yields and what have you, are much lower now than they were then. and ultimately i think the market is pricing in the fact that we are closer to peak inflation than we were then. also the economic outlook is slightly brighter, and by that i mean it is nowhere near as dark as it was thought to be the case in november december. and the market is reflecting that slightly more upbeat tone.
earlier about the world bank, and it is changing its outlook for global growth. people are less wanting to put their money into what is seen as risky assets. , ., ., , ., assets. there is no doubt about that. assets. there is no doubt about that- apart assets. there is no doubt about that. apart from assets. there is no doubt about that. apart from anything - assets. there is no doubt about that. apart from anything else, | that. apart from anything else, because defensive assets, things which basically have very low risk, like us treasury yields, uk gilt yields, which have low volatility, our attractive returns in a way they haven t been since the global financial crisis. so the opportunity costs of going into riskier assets is that much higher, and people are naturally, particularly given all the uncertainty. 50 all the uncertainty. so although all the uncertainty. so although we all the uncertainty. so although we have a crisis of confidence, as we mentioned, crypto contagio