The World Federation of of Stock Exchanges recently updated it’s monthly measure of stock market capitalization, showing that the total value of equity markets in the 58 countries it tracks has reached an all-time high.
Here’s a chart from Economist Mark J. Perry of the American Enterprise Institute:
As you can see, the value of global equitites has more than doubled since it’s post-recession low in 2009. Perry writes:
“The global stock market rally over the last five years has added back more than $34 trillion to world equity values since 2009, and demonstrates the incredible resiliency of economies and financial markets to recover and prosper, even following the worst financial crisis and global economic slowdown in at least a generation.”
It’s also worth mentioning, however, that central banks around the globe have kept interest near zero during this period, while bond buying from the fed has also helped boost equity values in the U.S. and abroad. These numbers are also not inflation-adjusted, so it’s unclear whether global stock market capitalization could technically be considered at a record high if inflation were taken into account.
Either way, this is generally good news and another sign that the global economy is slowly moving towards full health.