The year of the portfolio

The numbers are in for 2008 and the picture is bleak across Europe. Only countries such as Italy or Portugal posed (small) exceptions to the overall trend. Remembering the beginning of 2008, when the effects of the credit crunch had already taken hold for several months, many commentators anticipated the overall market to fall back to the levels of 2005, and 2008 for the first part of the year appeared to be on track to be a solid year, roughly in line with 2005 - a good year for the DACH region and Germany in particular