This week in Digital Bytes we look back at the predictions we made last year and I am delighted that most of them in some shape of form have been accurate, so no pressure for 2024!!!!

Welcome to the last Digital Bytes for 2023. This week we review both the predictions we made this time last year and which of those came to fruition. Having consulted some of our Digital Bytes readers for their own predictions, we will dust off our crystal ball next week and gaze into the future to try and give some thoughts of what 2024 has to offer.

Our 2023 predictions posted in Digital Bytes last December

 (with predictions in black and outcomes in bold italics)

·      inflation is not going to retreat quickly √

The financial excess of the last 14 years cannot be hastily unwound and there is still far too much excess cash pushing up prices. Commodity prices have fuelled inflationary pressure so forcing up interest rates and destroying the value of debt instruments (so called low risk investments). A note of caution from the biggest asset manager in the world, Blackrock, which has $9.57trillion undermanagement, is: "We think long-term government bonds won’t play their traditional role …