Bill Gross says global economy dangerously close to deflation

[BOSTON] Bill Gross, money manager at Janus Capital Group Inc., said the global economy is "dangerously close to deflationary growth."

Once there is a "whiff of deflation, things tend to reverse and go badly," Mr Gross said Friday in a Bloomberg Radio interview with Tom Keene. Gross pointed to how the CRB Commodity Index isn't just at a cyclical low, but lower than in 2008 when Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. went bankrupt.

The commodity markets tell a truer story of what is happening in the economy because they are subject to real-time supply and demand, Mr Gross said.

Mr Gross, who joined Janus in September after abruptly leaving Pacific Investment Management Co, manages the US$1.5 billion Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund.

BLOOMBERG