TOKYO, April 8. /TASS/. The consequences of tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump’s administration for markets are similar to the shock from the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 and the coronavirus pandemic, Yasuhide Yajima, chief economist at NLI Research Institute, said.
"I think that it is going to be as massive as the shock from the Lehman Brothers collapse and the coronavirus pandemic. Small and medium-sized businesses would like [to plan] capital investment and increase wages next year, though they cannot do it amid uncertainty over whether tariffs will be in effect long-term, or how the situation will be resolved," the NHK TV channel quoted him as saying.
On April 2, Trump announced the imposition of tariffs on products from 185 countries and territories. Universal 10% tariffs came into force on April 5, while individual ones reaching 50% will take effect on April 9. Moreover, the US administration imposed 25% tariffs on all imported cars starting April 3.
Those measures triggered a global stock market crash. On Monday, Japan’s Nikkei Index, which reflects the fluctuations of rates of shares of 225 leading companies, lost 6.88%, while the flagship index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Hang Seng, dropped by more than 13%.
The collapse on the Japanese stock market was the third-biggest in terms of scale since records started. On Monday alone, the market capitalization of leading Japanese public companies plummeted by 64 trillion yen (around $432.3 bln).