The Japanese economy has been struggling with deflation and low or no growth for almost three decades now. Every now and then, one of the world’s largest economies has shown promise but failed to deliver. There were high hopes following the election of Shinzo Abe as Prime Minister three years ago. Abe and the Japanese central bank immediately launched measures to boost growth and fight deflation.
Three years of stimulus measures though have failed to lift the economy. And with the China, a major market for Japanese exports, now seeing a slowdown, the outlook for the Japanese economy remains gloomy. Canadian investors can profit from the gloomy outlook for the Japanese economy by including the Horizon’s BetaPro Japan Bear Plus (ETF) (TSX: HPD) in their portfolio.
The ETF seeks daily investment results, before expenses, that endeavor to correspond to two times (200%) the inverse of the daily performance of the MSCI Japan Index. The ETF’s performance so far this year has been disappointing. Year-to-date, HPD is down almost 17%. However, with the outlook for the Japanese economy bearish, the MSCI Japan Index could see a sharp pullback.
