Former Treasury Secretary Downplays Economic Recession Concerns, Calls Stock Market Pullback a Natural Phenomenon

BlockBeats News, March 14: Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin played down the risk of a U.S. economic recession and downplayed the current stock market sell-off, seeing it as an adjustment to U.S. President Trump's aggressive trade policy.

Mnuchin said on Thursday in an interview, "We entered the market when it was fully priced, so I think a 5% to 10% adjustment in the S&P index or Nasdaq index is actually reasonable." "The market has indeed been driven by a lot of tech spending, especially in artificial intelligence—so this is to some extent a natural adjustment in the market," Mnuchin said, "Some of it is the market's concern about tariffs and their impact."

He advised investors not to "overreact." "I don't think we will enter a recession at all," he said. "As we cut government spending, the economy may slow down slightly, but I don't think investors should worry about an economic recession." He also said that the current biggest concern is the U.S.'s huge fiscal deficit and called on Republicans to extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts to reduce the impact on borrowing. (FXStreet)