10 events that shook the financial world in 2022—according to OctaFX
- Written by Media Outreach
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - Media OutReach - 10 January 2023 - The time has arrived for international broker OctaFX’s annual retrospective of events impacting the world economy—compiled towards the year’s end. The year 2022 has been all-around eventful and fateful. Let’s give due diligence to the 10 most important events that affected the financial markets. 
The year 2022 has been dominated by two major issues: the extreme rise of geopolitical tensions and record-high inflation in most industrialised economies. Both domains are intertwined and can be basically split up into ten key events. They are listed in order of importance and priority, although all of them have been strikingly crucial for the unfolding of 2022’s economic, financial and political narratives and disruptions—Forex being, of course, just one of them. 
2. Record-high inflation in the U.S. and beyond One of the many reasons for inflation was heavy supply chain disruptions, accompanied by a lingering effect of fiscal stimulus. In addition, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused another surge in inflation by increasing the uncertainty around energy and agricultural suppliers. 3. Europe faces an energy shock With gas and electricity bills nearly doubled in all EU capitals compared to a year before, the problem remains serious. Almost all other energy products and the shares of utility companies in Europe were affected, and a mid to long-term solution is far from being found. More on that later. 4. Eastern Europe as a warzone With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a new, uncertain era in international relations has begun. Navigating these collisions as they manifest on the financial market has become more and more an investor’s occupational risk. Global commodity prices have not remained untouched, boosting inflation and forcing the European Union and the continent as a whole to reexamine its energy policies. The latter sprang directly out of the unparalleled series of sanctions the EU imposed on Russia. 5. Crypto winter started early that year Long before the FTX fallout ever appeared on the horizon, the bear was already wandering around, forcing the crypto market trend downwards, with bitcoin at times falling by a whopping over 70% since December 2021. The cryptocurrency market was just a marker for an overall motto of ‘risk being out of fashion’ in the general investors’ sphere, as falling equity valuations have illustrated for a prolonged period of time. Then, in November, came the FTX collapse, giving the financial trends another main nail in the coffin of institutional trustworthiness. Around 8–10 billion U.S. dollars worth of funds have disappeared from the platform—one billion belonging to its retail community—lost almost overnight. Approximately a million people have lost their money. Not even FTX’s billionaire investors were spared: over thirty of them reported considerable financial losses. 6. Tensions around Taiwan With the Ukraine war already in full swing, an August crisis around Taiwan was on the brink of turning into an active warzone, as well—with the U.S. and China most probably turning out to be direct war parties. This has been circumvented. Not thanks to the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi who visited Taipei despite clear warnings of Bejing to abstain from such a visit. But sanctions against China’s technological companies were administered by the U.S. nonetheless, with China going on military and economic high alert. 7. The rise of protectionism and de-dollarisation of the global trade flows Towards the year’s end, news broke that China and Saudi Arabia had agreed to trade oil in Chinese yuan, moving Bejing’s national currency further into world reserve status. China is a founding BRICS group member, and Riyadh expressed an intention to join the network on numerous occasions. Russia, in an effort to combat sanctions, chose to only offer its energy...
The year 2022 has been dominated by two major issues: the extreme rise of geopolitical tensions and record-high inflation in most industrialised economies. Both domains are intertwined and can be basically split up into ten key events. They are listed in order of importance and priority, although all of them have been strikingly crucial for the unfolding of 2022’s economic, financial and political narratives and disruptions—Forex being, of course, just one of them. - The FED’s unprecedented rate hike marathon
The performance of 20 global currencies and gold in 2022 (y-t-d, as of Dec. 23)
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