TOKYO, Jan 1: The Japanese government is expected to raise its economic growth forecast for the next fiscal year to above 2 percent on hopes that its planned fiscal stimulus package will boost growth, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The country’s new premier, Shinzo Abe, surged to power in December’s lower house election pledging a big stimulus package to revive the slumping economy. His party officials suggest the plan could total around 10 trillion yen ($116 billion).
The government expects such spending to support the economy from the April-June quarter and, coupled with a rebound in overseas growth, would help the economy expand more than initially projected in the next fiscal year beginning in April, the paper said, without citing sources.
It also expects growth to be supported by an expected jump in consumer spending in the run-up to a sales tax hike in 2014.
The government’s current projection, made in August, is for the economy to grow 1.7 percent next fiscal year. It forecasts economic expansion of 2.2 percent in the current fiscal year ending in March.
Japan’s economy has slipped into a mild recession as the global slowdown hits exports and factory output, although many analysts expect a rebound by the middle of this year if global growth gradually picks up.
(agencies)
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