IMF flags 'chronic challenges' to Japan's financial system

Tokyo

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned on Tuesday that Japan's lengthy and ongoing period of weak economic growth and low interest rates, along with its demographic changes, are posing "chronic challenges" for the country's financial system.

In its latest Article IV consultation report, the IMF also noted that Japan's current, fairly-robust economic growth comes from the global pick-up in trade and from fiscal support. Without structural reforms, the world's third largest economy could fall back into slower growth, it added.