Abe hopes to close yawning budget gap by going for growth

Tokyo

JAPAN'S Cabinet Office on Thursday approved a record 97.5 trillion yen (S$1.2 trillion) draft budget for fiscal 2017 with little sign of progress yet towards achieving the government's fiscal consolidation target, but in the knowledge that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will effectively underwrite much of the spending.

This is some 733 billion yen more than in the current year. As in recent years, the government is expected to approve several supplementary budgets during fiscal 2017 which could raise spending significantly.