Japan looks set to slip into a mild recession, though the root of this will be exporters rather than domestic firms, according to Simon Somerville, manager of Jupiter Japan Income fund.
Somerville's comments follow the release of Bank of Japan quarterly Tankan business confidence survey this week, which found manufacturers to be at the gloomiest they've been in five years. The headline figure, the sentiment index for large manufacturers, fell from +5 in the last quarter to -3, though Somerville believes this was in line with expectations as most of these companies are exporters which have been hit by a slow in demand from the West. He said: "Japan is not immune to what's going on overseas. 15pc of its economy is exports, a lot of which go to the US. The events in the...
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