Global markets anticipate rate cuts in 2024, says Port Shelter's Richard Harris

Taking a cautious view, Harris said, "We are going to be in an environment where interest rates will remain relatively high, and I think markets will be disappointed like that, but probably not until maybe halfway into the first quarter."

Harris stays optimistic about China despite the world's second-largest economy facing a slowdown and on a day when the US-based global ratings agency Moody's downgraded the outlook on China's credit rating to "negative" from "stable" on worries over rising debt.

"China is obviously going through some very difficult times at the moment. I have no doubt that China will work its way through the bottom of this."

On the global economic landscape, Harris said, "There is a lot of deflation and disinflation around the world."

S&P Global Economics expects real interest rates to remain elevated through 2024, with the Federal Reserve unlikely to begin a cycle of policy-rate cuts before June, assuming core inflation approaches the central bank's target. We expect a series of four quarter-point cuts, which would bring the federal funds target rate to around 4.6% by the end of the year and 2.9% by the end of 2025.

As per Harris, the US is still a Goldie Locks economy. Investopedia explains a Goldilocks economy as an ideal state for an economy whereby the economy is not expanding or contracting by too much.

“We have got quite strong growth; it has not caused the inflation because we have got deflation elsewhere, and interest rates look as if they have topped and maybe start to come off the top,” he said.