IT HAS been a poor year for the markets. The MSCI world stockmarkets index fell by 8.5% in 2011, and the index for developed markets fell by 7.6%. The euro area's biggest economies fared particularly badly, with markets in Italy, France and Germany down by 25%, 17% and 15% respectively. But the prize for the worst performing of the stockmarket indices we track each week goes to Greece, which decreased by over 50% during the year. Venezuela's stockmarket did best, thanks to economic growth, high inflation (consumer prices increased by over 28% in the year to November), a thin market and the hope that Hugo Chávez's presidency is reaching its end. Only four other markets, in Indonesia, America (Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500) and Malaysia, ended 2011 higher than they started it.