Artemis' Littlewood shorts 'crushed' Japanese bonds

Artemis' William Littlewood is running a "significant" short on Japanese government bonds in the view they will be damaged by Japan's high public debt.

He has also increased a short on the Australian dollar, but is bullish on Asian currencies. The manager of the £798m Strategic Assets fund has shorts on Japanese government debt equivalent to nearly 50% of the fund, in the view the country has “gone beyond the point of no return”. Japan’s gross debt to GDP ratio is similar to that of Greece, along with huge budget deficits and worsening demographics, he says. “At some stage they are going to have to work out whether they are going to inflate or monetise their debt away,” he says. “I do not think Japan is very far from that, but whe...