Investors growing sceptical about Abenomics

Tokyo

RENEWED turmoil in global markets is beginning to erode investor confidence in Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's pledge to revitalise the economy through his massive "Abenomics" stimulus programme.

Doubts over the efficacy of Mr Abe's cocktail of monetary easing, fiscal stimulus and structural reforms have been growing for several months as the world's third-largest economy fails to motor on and inflation remains a long way off the Bank of Japan's 2 per cent goal.

Those doubts have heightened in the past few weeks as the freefall in oil prices and concerns about China's slowing economy sent global…