Jim Power: A hike in interest rates is not automatically a bad thing

As we approach the end of an extraordinary year on so many fronts, and as we move into a year that promises unprecedented uncertainty from both an economic and political perspective, central bankers and politicians are very much centre stage and will remain so.

Trump, Brexit, and elections in France, the Netherlands and Germany will dominate the political agenda, but central bankers on both sides of the Atlantic will also need to be watched carefully.

In recent years we have been living in a truly extraordinary environment of historically low interest rates and the unorthodox policy environment created by quantitative easing (QE). There is a chance some of this may change during 2017.