Japan to boost stimulus to $1.1 trillion
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Topics: JAPAN
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unveiled the new stimulus less than two weeks after his cabinet approved an earlier plan to spend 108.2 trillion yen ($1 trillion), which had detailed payouts of 300,000 yen to households with sharp drops in incomes hit by the outbreak.
Abe has caved into pressure from within his own ruling bloc to boost the help with a payment of 100,000 yen for every citizen instead of 300,000 yen for limited households, analysts say, even as the new amount triples the cost to 12 trillion yen from what the government had originally planned.
Expansion of the scheme may support private consumption that accounts for more than half of the economy, some analysts said, while others believe most of the payout would end up in savings rather than spending to shore up the economy. ■