Finance & Loans

Japan Finance Minister steadfast on expenditures cap

Japan’s Finance Minister Yoshiki Noda swore on Sunday his unwavering resolve to put a cap on public expenditures and loan applications for the following fiscal period. Noda is doing his best to resist public pressure to increase expenditures as the administration’s popularity continues to drop amidst Japan’s persistent slow economy. He announced during a television interview that he will do his best to achieve his government’s budget targets, whilst working to prevent failure of their fiscal rehabilitation program during its first year.

Noda’s renewal of his pledge is most likely targeted towards setting calm upon public concerns that the administration is loosening its focus on Japan’s ever increasing national debt. This comes as the government works towards the final stages of setting the year’s budget to begin in the month of April. The year’s budget is the first on a list of priorities in the government’s new long-term plans for reform that was drafted June this year. The plans put a Y71 trillion limit on public spending along with a Y44.3 trillion new debt sales cap for the 2011 fiscal period.

Noda hopes that the administration will be able to hold new debt to below the Y44 trillion target for as long as possible, as the government has no interest in not issuing new bonds. The reform plan aims to ultimately balance the government’s budget for the next ten years to slowly cut Japan’s enormous national debt. As of current, Japan’s debt figures to almost twice the country’s annual economic production, which proves to be the highest amongst all industrial nations globally.