More important than any other question for 2023 is where inflation will be at the end of it. Having peaked at 18%, CPI has fallen to 11% with further reductions likely. But what will it take to convince central bankers to reduce interest rates?

Michal Stupavsky (Conseq) believes inflation got out of control in the first place because the CNB moved too little, too late in hiking interest rates. Mark Robinson (Encor Wealth Management) describes 2022 as an "earthquake" that will have a long-term impact on the region's economies. Unlike the optimists, he argues that it simply takes a long time to clear the system of all the excess money sloshing around that's accelerating price growth.