Heartwood's Stanes: Japan's growth on the up despite misplaced optimism on Abe's reform
Japanese equity indices were among the strongest-performing developed markets in 2017 (the MSCI Japan returned 20% in local currency terms). This robust performance came despite a near 5% appreciation of the yen versus the US dollar.
But it was the re-election of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last October that seems to have been one of the catalysts for Japan's equity market rally taking hold, led by the stellar performance of smaller...
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