Mnuchin, Fed officials downplay risks of stock rout as sell-off spreads

Washington

GLOBAL finance chiefs played down the economic risks posed by the biggest US stock sell-off since February, with many describing the decline as a long-awaited correction.

"The fundamentals of the US economy continue to be extremely strong, I think that's why the stock market has performed as well as it has," US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Bloomberg News at the IMF's annual meeting in Bali, Indonesia.

"The fact that there's somewhat of a correction given how much the market has gone up is not particularly surprising," said Mr Mnuchin, whose calm response was echoed by Federal Reserve officials and other intern…