Even after last year’s dismal returns, stocks adjusted for inflation still posted above-average returns for the decade, and were the only major asset class to appreciate in value. That’s according to the 68th Equity Gilt study from Barclays, which tabulates the returns for assets adjusted for inflation. Adjusted for the consumer price index, U.S. equities skidded by 24.4% in 2022, which wasn’t even the worst of the major assets — Treasury inflation-protected bonds slumped 36.1%, government bonds dropped by 30.4%, and corporate bonds weakened by 30.1%.
Over a decade, equities returned 8% — the only positive asset class of the 2012 to 2022 period. That return over a decade was above the 6.6% long-run average since 1925. The latest forecasts from Vanguard, released Monday, aren’t as bullish. The indexing giant is expecting average annual gains over the next decade from U.S. equities between 4.1% and 6.1%, and inflation between 2% and 3%, meaning that the real gain for stocks could be as low as 1.1%. Vanguard is forecasting annual returns from Treasury bonds to be 3.3% to 4.3% per year, which is not dissimilar from the inflation-adjusted performance over the last 20 years of 1.4%. The Barclays data also show that the worst-ever annualized return for U.S. equities adjusted for inflation over a 20-year period was 0.9%, though the firm cautions that it doesn’t mean it’s impossible to lose money over such a timeframe.
The story was similar in the U.K., where equities adjusted for …
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