The 17th Global Risks Report produced for the World Economic Forum has highlighted fears among political and business leaders around the world that the next two years will see a heightened risk of a major asset bubble burst, writes David Worsfold, contributing editor.

In the second of two articles, seven people with different perspectives on the insurance industry’s investment scene offer their predictions of what 2022 might hold.

New Year predictions have always been laced with caveats, uncertainty and the hope that by the end of the year they do not look ridiculously wide of the mark. The global chaos caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has doubled and re-doubled that uncertainty but are we, at last, reaching out to normality?

Inflation is casting a darkening shadow across all major economies, knocking away the complacency that assumes its once corrosive influence has been neutralised.

The evolving landscape of commercial real estate markets post-Covid, changes in cashflow and risk profiles, and the implications for insurance portfolios were all on the agenda for the latest Insurance Investment Exchange virtual roundtable.

Insurance company CIOs watching COP26 are probably feeling contrasting emotions. On the one hand, none of them will be wishing for it to fail in pulling the world back from the brink of potential catastrophe but they will not want too many new rules tying their hands – at least not too many, too fast.