(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Japan unveiled a record budget for next fiscal year, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe boosts spending on social security, defence and public works while trying to contain growth in the world's biggest debt burden.
Government ministers and the ruling coalition adopted the ¥95.88 trillion ($921 billion) budget proposal for the year from April 1 at a meeting on Saturday in Tokyo, Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters. Japan will issue ¥41.25 trillion of new revenue bonds, Aso said, less than ¥42.9 trillion earmarked in this year's initial budget.
Abe aims to pull the country out of a 15-year deflationary malaise and cope with rising welfare costs of its ageing population, while containing public debt that's more than twice the size of the economy. His government has pledged to halve the primary balance deficit by fiscal 2015 and achieve a surplus by fiscal 2020.
"The government needs to show that it's moving in the right direction on fiscal discipline but this budget lacks punch," said Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief economist at Itochu in Tokyo. "The government must cut spending to reach the planned target of a surplus in 2020."
Abe's cabinet is expected to approve the budget draft at a meeting on December 24 and submit it to Parliament in the new year for debate.
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