I've seen the same types of predictions coming out of the USA in
   those expensive investing prognosticators. Big predictions come
   out at the beginning of the year. Firms offer their investment
   strategies for the upcoming year. You need to look at their past
   year-start predictive abilities and check their accuracy. Not
   all economists are good at forecasting. Most are always wrong.
   == The investment community is still very primitive in its
   emotional intelligence. Basic psychology didn't even BEGIN to
   enter the calculations until I t*think* the mid 1990s or so and
   even then, it was more "animal" than human. Adam Smith's
   rational man still lives on, , a useful fiction but with the
   same old limitations. == I studied investing heavily from around
   1999-2002 and got really into it. Found my style, used it (DRIP
   - long term [theoretically]) and did well right through the ups
   and downs. I made my choices, drew from it, did well. My style
   was contrary. (contrarian? I think that's the name) they give
   for it. Look at all of the advice, _even_ the contrarian advice,
   and go opposite. Find the strong companies that will survive the
   to-and-fro in the longer term. But mostly index investing. Had I
   no other advice, stick to indexes and don't invest more than you
   can afford to lose. ==