Asian equities continued their decline on Monday, due to renewed concerns about the virus and the threat of inflation.
In Asia, the week started with a new decline, and investors are taking shelter to safe havens like the yen and gold, held back by the risk of rising Covid-19 cases and inflation.
On the index side, the index of major Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan, MSCI, was down 0.4% at the start of a second day of declines. In Japan, the Nikkei fell 1.3% while in South Korea, the KOSPI index lost 1%.
The arrival of the Delta variant, feared for its high contagion potential, has put hopes of economic recovery in Asia on hold, and the first signs of weakness are being felt in the global economy.
In addition, the high inflation that investors have been predicting is once again threatening the market. Analysts at Bank of America have lowered their forecast for growth in the U.S. economy, now estimated at 6.5% this year, down from 7% initially.
“As far as inflation is concerned, the bad news is that it is likely to remain high in the near term,” Bank of America economists said in a note. “We are probably close to the peak, at least for the next few months, as base effects are less favorable and scarcity pressures shift from goods to services“.
U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) boss Jerome Powell has repeatedly said that monetary policy would remain accommodative for some time and that the rise in inflation would only be “transitory“.
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