Recession in Japan a possibility: StanChart

says it is mixed picture across Asia but most of the indicators for Japan are still telling that the Japanese economy is headed for contraction. A recession in Japan is a possibility one cannot rule out.
Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Lim Say Boon:
Q: What is your perspective about how the markets are panning out this morning?A: The picture is fairly mixed one across Asia, some losses, some gains. MSCI, the Asia Pacific is up 0.9% early morning, the Nikkei was up but most of the indicators for Japan are still telling that the Japanese economy is headed for contraction and a recession in Japan is a possibility one cannot rule out and infact is looking quite real.

At the US one saw some joy at the National Association of Purchasing Management, the index rising to 48.2 in March but at 48.2 it is still contracting but it is contracting slightly less than what the market had feared. So the outlook for the US economy presents a lot of downside risk. It is in recession and so called economic surprise index or indices are pointing downwards i.e Economists have been overly optimistic on the US economy, indeed they are likely to be overly optimistic on earnings next. If one looks at corporate earnings the numbers are very high, 15-16% growth expectations in the US, I think there is going to be lot of disappointment and continued downside on stocks.
Q: What is your outlook on market like Taiwan?
A: Taiwan is fairly defensive and I don’t expect it to go much anywhere whilst the rest of the world is declining but it is certainly defensive, its P/E valuations are low, it doesn’t have huge amount of earnings growth expectations built into it. It is one of the most defensive markets known.
Link CNBC-TV18