The former US Treasury secretary played down recession fears, calling a stock market correction a natural phenomenon

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has played down the risk of a U.S. recession and played down the current stock market sell-off as a tweak to U.S. President Donald Trump's aggressive trade strategy. "We entered the market when the market was fully priced, so I think a 5% to 10% adjustment in the S & P or Nasdaq is actually justified," Mnuchin said in an interview on Thursday. "The market has really been driven by a lot of tech spending, especially in artificial intelligence - so it's sort of a natural adjustment in the market," Mnuchin said. "Some of it is the market's concerns about tariffs and their impact". He advised investors not to "overreact". " I don't think we're going into a recession at all, "he said." The economy may slow down a little as we scale back government spending, but I don't think investors should be worried about a recession. "He also said the biggest concern right now was the huge U.S. fiscal deficit and called on Republicans to extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts to reduce the impact on borrowing.