The AEX index of the Amsterdam stock exchange closed the year with a drop of 13.7% compared to the previous year. The AEX will close 2022 at 689.01 points, while this year the index started around 800 points. 2022 is therefore the worst trading year for the AEX since 2008, when the credit crisis started.
Last trading year was mainly dominated by the war in Ukraine, rapidly rising inflation and interest rate hikes by central banks to counter rising prices. As a result of these three factors, the Dutch economy now appears to have entered a recession.
This economic headwind was also felt in the equity market: where the AEX started the year around 800 points, it closed well below 700 points. It is the first annual loss for AEX after three years of consecutive profits.
At minus more than 14 percent, 2022 will go down on the books as one of the worst stock years in recent history. In the last twenty years, only 2002 (-36.3 percent) and 2008 (-52.3 percent) have been worse. The credit crisis started in the last year.
