Japan ’s government approved a 7.2 trillion JPY to foster the fragile recovery of Asia ’s largest economy

Tokyo (VNA) – Japan ’s government on Dec. 8 approved a 7.2 trillion JPY (80.6 billion USD) to foster the fragile recovery of Asia ’s largest economy, which is now threatened by deflation and the strong yen’s impact on exports.

Kyodo news agency quoted government sources as saying that the package will have
effects worth around 24.4 trillion JPY (274 billion USD).

It focuses on improving employment conditions, corporate financing for small and
medium sized businesses and increasing consumption in the private sector by
boosting the sale of environmentally friendly products.

The additional stimulus measures will be financed by the forthcoming second extra
budget for the 2009 fiscal year through till March 31, 2010.

The government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama had “frozen” the first
stimulus package, which was worth 13.9 trillion JPY and initiated by the previous
administration, to reduce public spending.

Statistics released by the Finance Ministry show that Japan’s economy grew by
4.8 percent in the third quarter of this year, its highest growth rate for the
past two years.-Enditem