Global Equity Income - 2025 Outlook

Matthew Page
So what's the outlook for the Global Equity Income Fund? Well, I think generally pretty positive. From a macro point of view, inflation in the developed market world is continuing to fall. And I think that's going to allow central banks to continue to cut rates in 2025, which is therefore going to support economic growth into the future.

The outlook for broader economic policy is somewhat uncertain, given we don't know exactly what policies Trump will ultimately enact. So I think we need to be prepared for market volatility and indeed in the Global Equity Income Fund, we do run a fairly balanced portfolio between those companies that we think are going to perform well in a more stressed economic environment and those are going to keep up in a more positive growth or cyclical oriented market. 

What does this mean for the dividends of the companies that we own? Well, in 2024, we actually saw the fastest pace of dividend growth in the portfolio that we've seen in the last five years. On average, companies grew their dividend around 8.5%. And indeed, we saw some companies grow their dividends at well over 10 or even 15%. We don't see anything really in the near term that's going to change the picture for dividends in 2025. 

And so ultimately, we think falling inflation, lower interest rates, but increased market volatility means we need to continue to run a balanced portfolio of high quality companies that we think can continue to grow their dividends long into the future.