No 62 - Mystic Matthews reviewing the predictions from 2021
I made 18 predictions last year! And now is the time to check the score card….
Covid will get more mild - correct
No more lockdown - correct
A reduced number of COVID patients admitted to hospital and ITU - correct
Reduced positive tests in the community - sort of correct, people just stopped testing.
The waiting list will be over 6 million - I massive underestimated but correct general trend.
Doctor pension tax rules were not changed, and there has been no increase in catch up work and therefore the backlog has grown - correct.
An increase in private healthcare use in the UK - correct.
A new COVID-19 vaccine - correct there is now the Bivalent vaccine, and the AZ vaccine has been withdrawn.
Incorrect - I thought vaccines would become mandatory for children but I was wrong.
FTSE 100 - I was slightly out, it just dipped below 7000 in Oct and went over 7700 in Dec not June. To be fair, not bad considering I didn’t see the war in Ukraine coming.
I got this one totally wrong! The multiple governments, made multipe different and contradictory plans to both lower and then raise taxes. So, I was very wrong on this one.
I tried to predict the UK general gross debt for March 22 and as a % of GDP. The GDP bet was wrong I think according to the latest data. “UK general government gross debt was £2,436.7 billion at the end of Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2022, equivalent to 101.9% of gross domestic product (GDP).” - I got the total roughly right but the GDP wrong.
Government Deficit in March 22 - actually much lower than I predicted.
I did not manage to publish 1 article a week, but I managed to do nearly 40 in the year.
The Ukrainian War pushed COVID out of the news = correct
Most Brits did stop using masks and booster uptake has dropped. The leisure industry has improved. Correct.
Far too optimistic! Mr Johnson lost power a long time ago. Wrong!
Bitcoin prices - I was wrong by about 450%!
12/18 - 60% accurate …. not so mystic after all! Looks like I can’t retire and live off investments just yet.
But for a bit of fun, I will come up with some predictions for this year. Coming soon. Happy New Year 2023!