The Financial Times’s team of crystal ball gazers had their best year for a while in 2023, with only three wrong answers — though we got these pretty wrong. The S&P 500 did not fall by more than 10 per cent, but climbed over 20 per cent (though driven mostly by just seven tech stocks). Europe didn’t experience blackouts, though we said this would happen only in a very cold winter (it wasn’t). And there wasn’t a string of defaults in Africa, though Ethiopia did default this week.
It says much about the world that, for a third year running, we feature questions on war or military action this year — between Israel and Hamas, Russia and Ukraine and, perhaps, between China and Taiwan. The big calls seem ever harder to make. But on the question more FT staff suggested than any other — will Donald Trump be president? — Edward Luce agreed to venture his best guess. Read on to find out!
A record 17 readers tied on 19 correct answers in our competition. Congratulations to Richard Barnes of London, overall winner after the tiebreaker. We invite readers again to submit answers to this year’s 20 questions and tiebreaker, giving their real name and email. Happy New Year! Neil Buckley