Business

Japan to keep fiscal target deadline, re-assess later this year - draft blueprint

Japan's government will stick to its goal of achieving a primary balance surplus by fiscal 2025, but re-assess the timeframe due to the damage the COVID-19 pandemic inflicted on the economy, the government's draft fiscal blueprint seen by Reuters showed.

FILE PHOTO: People, wearing protective masks following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVI
FILE PHOTO: People, wearing protective masks following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), walk on an almost empty street in the Dotonbori entertainment district of Osaka, Japan, March 14, 2020. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

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TOKYO: Japan's government will stick to its goal of achieving a primary balance surplus by fiscal 2025, but re-assess the timeframe due to the damage the COVID-19 pandemic inflicted on the economy, the government's draft fiscal blueprint seen by Reuters showed.

"Japan will aim to bring the primary balance into a surplus by fiscal 2025, while seeking to stably lower the country's debt-to-GDP ratio," the draft blueprint read.

"However, the government will re-assess the timeframe by the end of the current fiscal year ... taking into account the still unstable economic and fiscal situation due to the pandemic's impact," the draft added.

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto, Kaori Kaneko, Daniel Leussink and Takaya Yamaguchi, writing by Leika Kihara)

Source: Reuters