Many investors are shifting their focus to achieving yield rather than capital growth, and favouring bank deposits over the sharemarket. But they must remember that the return from a bank is subject to decisions by the Reserve Bank: lower official interest rates mean lower earnings for savers.
Much of the global economic growth of the past decade was fuelled by debt and the continuation of growth was reliant on buoyant levels of confidence. Investor confidence was shattered by the Global Financial Crisis and the increasingly conservative behaviour that followed has resulted in a growing desire by many people to save and pay off debt.