Our warmest New Year greetings to you! As this wonderful holiday approaches, we wish you all the best! May the upcoming year 2018 be full of new ambitious plans, big ideas, and good news!

The year 2017 was full of sudden and highly important events, which will affect many global economic processes, and shape government policies of all the leading countries in the near future. Among them was the Catalan independence referendum, which grabbed international attention. Despite the fact that Madrid refused to recognise the results of the referendum, the outcome is still not clear, as independence supporters achieved a landslide victory in the local parliamentary pre-elections, putting the future unity of Spain into question.

Among the most crucial political events of 2017, there was also the sudden outcome of the German parliamentary elections (which we had forecast in our previous annual review). For the first time in the country's post-war history, the far-right “Alternative for Germany” party was elected into the parliament, while the two main German political powers – the Christian Democratic Union of Germany / the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) – underperformed. This meant the need for a three-party parliament, though it has not yet been achieved (three months after the parliamentary elections, Angela Merkel has not managed to put together a government coalition). For this reason, the chancellor and the ministers are temporarily in charge, with no program of reforms approved by Bundestag. No doubt this situation bears risks for Germany, and for the European Union.

The upcoming year is also going to be full of political events. Russia's presidential elections are going to be the most important political event of 2018. Though the election outcome seems predictable, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation added suspense to the race, nominating a surprise candidate Pavel Grudinin, the CEO of the Lenin State Farm with no previous party affiliation, instead of the Party’s leader Gennady Zyuganov. The new U.S. sanctions may in a way affect campaign statements of the candidates. The sanctions are expected to be imposed in February, 2018. If they include the Russian government securities market, they may adversely influence both the ruble rate and Russia's economy, in general.

In the U.S., scandals surrounded the main newsmaker of this past year, President Donald Trump, throughout 2017. In the upcoming year, there is a serious ordeal in store for the President and the Republican Party – the November midterm elections, where all of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, as well as one-third of the Senate (33 senators out of 100) stand for re-election. Considering the current low approval rating of the U.S. President, as well as the massive anti-Trump U.S. media coverage, the Republicans may lose the majority in one or both chambers of the U.S. Congress. No doubt, this will be a great obstacle in the way of passing new reforms in the country, and will add to the political crisis. It should also be noted that the November midterm elections will be heavily affected by the first economic results of the U.S. President's large-scale tax reform. As the bill passed in the late December 2017, the tax reform has not only become Trump’s first victory following several failed legislative initiatives, but has also been one of the most important events of 2017.

Along with Trump's tax reform, there was another important economic event – the Fed's decision to launch its balance sheet shrinkage, made in the September meeting. As we had forecast in our previous economic reviews, the Fed's balance sheet reduction by 10 billion USD/month, which started in the fourth quarter of 2017, has not yet had a significant influence on the market.

However, in the long-term, with the shrinkage going on, dollar liquidity withdrawing from the market, and the base interest rate going up, it is the currencies of developing economies that may experience growing pressure from the potential outflow of investors' funds into American bonds. It should also be noted that the Fed's policy is highly likely to push the European Central Bank to toughen its monetary policy in 2018.

The list of crucial events of 2017 has to include the prolongation of the OPEC+ oil output cut agreement. Considering the apparent success of the participating countries, 2018 may bring balance of supply and demand to the global oil market. Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that the significant growth of oil prices in 2017, combined with the policy of OPEC+ participating countries, led to increased oil production in other countries, including the USA. As estimated by the U.S. DOE, in mid-December 2017, the U.S. oil production reached the record-high 9.789 million bpd. However, further growth of oil production in the USA and other non-OPEC countries may herald significant risks for market balancing. Considering the huge number of changeable factors still affecting the oil market, oil prices are likely to remain highly volatile in the upcoming 2018, as well.

The high level of turbulence and uncertainty in the global financial markets means new opportunities for speedy growth of asset value of our investment portfolios, for our clients and ourselves. In that regard, the company’s products WellMax Premium and WellMax Elite seem to be particularly attractive, having yielded 37% over the period from October 2016 to October 2017.

In the upcoming 2018, we wish you successful investments with the WellMax Premium and WellMax Elite products, which don’t just stand out due to their high yield, but also due to complete safety of your investments! Next year we will continue informing you on trends in global and regional economies, providing you with a high quality analysis, and delighting investors and partners of International Financial Community with high return on investment.

Yours sincerely,

The IFC team