Data released in August appeared to indicate that countries whose economies reopened earlier have just started to have the foot taken off the accelerator a little. Those economies continue to grow but at a slower pace. Whereas Emerging Markets and Japan have been trying to get to grips with the delta variant and as a result have started to see economic activity dip, although strong vaccine rollout programmes in China and Japan in particular have helped keep serious cases subdued. Equity markets were generally in good shape over the month, whilst bond yields rose slightly which benefitted shorter-duration bonds.

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