Japan’s Finance Minister Says the Selloff’s Not as Simple as Trump Says

(Bloomberg) -- The market sell-off can’t just be blamed on the U.S. Federal Reserve raising interest rates, said Japan’s Finance Minister Taro Aso.

While U.S. President Donald Trump said the Fed caused the market rout, Aso said it’s more complicated.

“You can’t really say the market situation is due to the Fed rate hike,” Aso told reporters in Bali, Indonesia on Thursday at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting. “Trump is saying it’s due to the Fed, I don’t think it’s that simple.”

Trump has repeatedly criticized the Fed over the past 24 hours as markets plunged, saying Wednesday that the central bank was “going loco.” Market analysts, meanwhile, mostly attributed the decline to concerns that Trump’s trade war with China could escalate.

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.