An Investor's 2011: The Year In Numbers

An investor's 2011 The Year In Numbers 2011 has been a rollercoaster year for private investors, and for the investment industry. But what exactly happened? We take a quick look back at the big financial events of the year through that most unbiased of indicators: the cold, hard number. Inflation 4.8% 2.8% inflation as of November 2011 2011 inflation forecast in November 2010 Inflation in 2011 is the highest it has ever been since the Bank of England was handed responsibility for keeping it around the 2% mark. It is below Zimbabwe's 11,200,000% 10O 0 RESERVE BANK OF ZIHBABWE TRION DOLLÁRS inflation in 2008. Inflation is a useful measure against which to compare investment returns. Markets *: +17.25% +0.91% -5.83% -14.26% -23.24% Shanghai Composite Gold Dow Jones FTSE DAX the markets have confounded predictions, with the FTSE going below 5000 and China seeing a big fall. Gold was up over the year, but has gone down 6% in the last few weeks of 2011 with fears of deflation for 2012. Investments +15.62% -21.42% Best Performing Sector Worst Performing Sector China/Greater China UK Index Linked Gilts Best fund in sector: Worst fund in sector: Schroder Institutional Long- Dated Sterling Bond Jupiter China +28.09% -30.75% The number of funds beating the RPI in 2011. 7% An investor picking a random fund would have a 7% chance of not losing money in real terms in 2011. low cost funds medium to high cost funds Number of funds with a medium to high yearly cost (>0.5%) that beat RPI Number of funds with a low yearly cost (<0.5%) that beat RPI 25% 8% the impact of cost on performance is much higher when there is low growth; on average, low cost funds outperformed funds with higher costs in 2011, returning -0.8% overall against -6.3% for higher cost funds. Retail Investment Industry £21,854,477 cash collected in fines by the FSA for failings in advice and mortgage broking The FSA collected over £66 million in fines in 2011 overall, down from £89 million in 2010 -23% the reduction in the amount invested in 2011, compared to 2010 This is mainly due to a 64% drop from Q2 2011 to Q3 2011, following the beginning of the Euro crisis, the England riots, the 2011 Budget (and the death of Amy Winehouse.) £373,768,693,615 the amount of money invested in retail funds in the UK Despite the reduction in the amount invested and the poor performance of investments in general, this is up by £7,586 million compared to 2010. The investment industry is still in good health. research and graphics by rplan www.rplan.co.uk See www.rplan.co.uk/posts/1067/ for full list of sources