Japan’s economic package to reach 73 billion dollars: report

TOKYO,

Japan is set to unveil a stimulus package worth eight trillion yen (73 billion dollars) in a bid to shore up the economy, a report said on Saturday.

Economic fiscal policy minister Kaoru Yosano delivered a draft of the planned measures to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Finance Minister Bunmei Ibuki on Friday, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said.

In early August, Fukuda ordered Yosano to draw up a package to boost economic growth and support small businesses as well as farmers and fishermen hit by soaring oil prices.

The measures are also designed to discount expressway tolls, support young job seekers and expand the nation’s medicare services for the elderly, the mass circulation daily said. The latest stimulus is still smaller than a reform programme worth 14.8 trillion yen announced by then prime minister Junichiro Koizumi in December 2002. The finance ministry is largely expected to submit an extra budget to parliament to finance the package, but Ibuki has said the government was not expecting to issue new bonds to finance it.

The government faces calls from some lawmakers within the ruling coalition for a big injection of public money to boost Asia’s largest economy, which contracted in the second quarter, moving closer to recession.

(AFP)