Money Matters

At Zigram, a question over beer usually turns into a data analytics exercise. Last friday someone asked – Why do certain countries prefer Pensions over Investments? Because while the instruments behind them are similar i.e stocks and bonds… the emotion driving them varies significantly. We looked at 10 year google search trends data, stock markets, GDP, demographics, economic outlook surveys, PPP, Income and a whole host of other indicators. Did we get any underlying trends or overall themes? Short Answer. Yes. Long Answer. It’s somewhat complicated. Some of these are: 1. The world is clearly more interested in pensions now, than ever before 2. Savings see a cyclical uptick in search, thanks to tax filing dates in the USA 3. Irrespective of economic prospects & growth, Europeans search for pensions, probably because their populations are growing older 4. Despite healthy economic indicators, outlook and age on their side, Indians may feel the need to plan for retirement via pensions 5. On the whole, stock market performance over the last 3 years hasn’t proportionately impacted a country’s preference for investments 6. Spain finds itself in a somewhat difficult place What did we learn? Numbers tell great stories… but context makes them complete.