The FTSE 100‘s a bit wobbly as people fear the upcoming budget. But it’s still holding up over 8,000 points, and I think the future for dividends might never have looked better.
But wait, aren’t FTSE 100 dividend forecasts being scaled back in the face of our slow economy? Well, yes. The all-time record dividend payout of £85.2bn came in 2018. And as we’ve recovered from the Covid crash, it’s looked set to be beaten a couple of times.
But each year falls short. And with only a 1% growth in dividend cash forecast for 2024, it looks like we’ll still be some way from it this year. A 1% rise isn’t even close to keeping dividends up with inflation.
Beating the past
Still, some of the shortfall in dividends is due to something that’s actually good. Judging their stock prices to be too low, a lot of firms have been returning cash by way of share buybacks instead.
That won’t put cash straight into…
