Year in charts 2025

1. The defining personality of the year was Donald Trump, who, among other things, transformed the US government with his sweeping and untrammelled executive orders. 

2. The defining global economic theme of the year was tariffs. 

3. This is a progression of the Trump tariffs through the year.

4. The Trump tariffs may have disrupted the global economy and virtually ended the WTO era, but it has lowered the US trade deficit and sharply increased revenues from tariffs.

5. A clear casualty of the Trump policies has been the dollar, which has been on a declining trend. 

6. On the back of a weakening dollar, the US equity markets were eclipsed by global stocks for the first time since 2009.

7. South Korean KOSPI was the standout performer, and India was among the worst performers. 

8. But US technology stocks continued their march to multi-trillion dollar valuations on the back of the AI bubble.

9. However, the standout investment asset of the year was not gold, but silver which has risen by over 125% in the year.

It was the worst year for the dollar since 2017.

10. But gold had the best year in nearly half a century. 

11. At the other end, bitcoin and crypto investors took the highest risk for the lowest returns.

12. Amidst the grandstanding success with the US, the Chinese economy has continued to weaken. 

13. 2025 was also the year when AI truly arrived.

14. The top 10 Gen AI use cases in 2025 indicate a shift from technical to emotional applications, and in particular, growth in areas such as therapy, personal productivity, and personal development. 

15. AI-related investment drove all of US GDP growth in the first half of 2025.

16. A big question on AI investments is whether the AI stocks will follow the trend of the railway bubble or the dotcom mania. 

17. The year has been one of rate cuts as the global economy weakened, with Japan being the exception. 

18. India stands out the fastest growing major economy.

19. Jakarta has emerged as the most populous mega city in the world.

20. Finally, the visualisation pages in Bloomberg here and NYT here are excellent. Also this from Goldman Sachs, thisand this from McKinsey. Here is the FT journalists’ pick of stories of the year. Also this from Rest of World. 

WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!