The annual CFA Market Forecast Dinner was held at the RACV Club, Melbourne on 21 July 2008. The dinner was a sell out with 150 people attending and was sponsored by Macquarie Real Estate, BlackRock Investment Management, Franklin Templeton International, Perpetual Limited, KPMG Corporate Finance, Industry Funds Management, Commonwealth Securities (CommSec) and Osborne Associates. Results from the 2007 dinner were reviewed and the award for the best overall forecast was presented to the Australian Financial Review journalist, Barrie Dunstan. An article written by Barrie Dunstan following the dinner can be found at the following link: AFR Article
The dinner featured a presentation by Dr Marc Faber, a renowned economist and market commentator who has for many years been based in Asia and is the author of the GloomBoomDoom report. Tim Toohey, Chief Economist of Goldman Sachs JB Were responded to Dr Faber's presentation to provide the Australian context.
Forecasts were provided by 104 participants following the distinctly bearish outlooks provided by the commentators in their presentations and responses to questions. The consensus was for the Australian economy to slow, inflation and interest rates to fall slightly, equity and oil markets to be flat and food prices to rise further. The forecasts will be reviewed and awards presented at the July 2009 annual dinner. Details of the 2009 dinner will be announced in May 2009.