Markets

Hayman Capital's Kyle Bass predicts US interest rates will head back to zero in 2020

Key Points
  • Hayman Capital's Kyle Bass expects interest rates will head back to near zero in 2020.
  • He also expects the U.S. to suffer a minor stock pullback during the same period.
Kyle Bass talks China, markets, and the Fed
VIDEO10:4710:47
Kyle Bass talks China, markets, and the Fed

Hayman Capital Management founder Kyle Bass expects interest rates will head back to zero in 2020 as the U.S. and the rest of the world enter into an economic recession.

Bass, who said his firm is long bonds, told CNBC's Brian Sullivan that the economic stimulus from President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts will wear off toward the end of this year. The lack of fiscal stimulus and resulting economic downturn may force the Federal Reserve, led by Chairman Jerome Powell, to cut interest rates.

The central bank's current policy rate is between 2.25 percent and 2.5 percent.

"Southeast Asia is headed for a recession in 2019. Europe is headed for a recession in 2019," the hedge fund manager said in an interview that aired on "Worldwide Exchange" on Tuesday. "The world is not just going to have a recession and the U.S. is going to keep growing."

Most economists, as well as some the world's business elite, agree that economic growth is slowing and some predict that the global economy is headed for a recession as soon as this year.

Economists see on average a 25 percent chance of a recession within 12 months, according to a Wall Street Journal survey published in January, the highest level since October 2011 and up from just 13 percent last year.

As a result of a recession and lack of fiscal stimulus, Bass also said he expects the U.S. to suffer a "minor" stock pullback in 2020. He did not elaborate on how much he expected stocks to fall.

The market had been under serious pressure since early October in part on concerns about a trade war and the aggressiveness of the Fed's rate-hike policy. Stocks in December plunged in their worst Christmas Eve trading ever, with the sinking 2.7 percent and slipping into a bear market, defined as a decline in an index or asset of 20 percent or more from recent highs.

Since the Dec. 24 close, however, the S&P 500 has rallied 19.25 percent through Friday's close.

Bass made a name for himself in 2007 with a lucrative bet against the subprime mortgage market. He made a huge currency bet in 2016 against the Chinese yuan, predicting it would depreciate by as much as 30 to 40 percent.