Abe Seeks Economic Stimulus Amid 'COVID-19' Shock... "Measures Expected at Lehman Crisis Level"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Saeng-hye] In response to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the Japanese government is expected to announce a large-scale economic stimulus package.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced at a press conference held on the 14th, "We will promptly implement flexible, necessary, and sufficient economic and fiscal measures without delay."

Regarding this, Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported on the 15th that Prime Minister Abe is preparing to order the formulation of economic measures after the approval of the 2020 fiscal year budget (April 2020 to March 2021), and that the finalized economic measures will be announced next month.

Nikkei speculated that the Japanese government will attempt to execute the budget in two phases: tax reform within the year to reduce taxes, and an "emergency measure" for those facing difficulties in daily life, followed by a "stimulus" plan after the COVID-19 outbreak ends. The measures are expected to include tax reductions such as expanded point refunds in addition to the allowances for low-income earners mentioned by Prime Minister Abe at the press conference the previous day.

Nikkei predicted that the scale of the economic measures will be similar to those implemented in 2009 in response to the shock of the Lehman Brothers crisis.

The economic measures announced by the Japanese government in April 2009 had a project scale of 56.8 trillion yen (approximately 651.2177 trillion won).

Yasutoshi Nishimura, Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization, received opinions from young members of the Liberal Democratic Party on the 11th of this month, suggesting the need to prepare a supplementary budget of 30 trillion yen (approximately 343.953 trillion won). Kyodo News reported that there are views that fiscal spending for the COVID-19 economic measures will exceed at least 10 trillion yen (approximately 114.651 trillion won).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.