The past year will be remembered as a moment of reckoning for central banks. The relentless wave of cheap money provided by policymakers set the bond market racing higher, spreading negative yields throughout the financial system and prompting many rate-setters, bankers and investors to wonder whether they could really control the monster they had created.
The US Federal Reserve’s policy U-turn that set it on course for rate cuts put investors in a spin. Ructions in the repo market caused plenty of angst. And President Donald Trump shook currency markets with a series of off-the-cuff remarks.
Here, FT reporters around the world look back on the big moments and personalities that defined 2019 in markets.