[FT]Japan to launch $99bn fiscal stimulus

Japan to launch $99bn fiscal stimulus
By Michiyo Nakamoto in Tokyo

Published: April 6 2009 09:00 | Last updated: April 6 2009 19:17

Japan’s prime minister on Monday told his government to prepare a record Y10,000bn ($99bn) fiscal stimulus to lift the world’s second-biggest economy from its deepening gloom.
일본이 10조엔의 경기부양책을 내놨다.

Taro Aso said that the stimulus must focus on healthcare and medical services, subsidies to local governments, a new social safety net for non-regular workers, more use of government financial institutions to ease the credit crunch and solar energy.
지원대상은 의료, 지방정부지원, 비정규직지원, 금융기관 유동성지원, 태양에너지이다.

The government plans to unveil details of the package on Friday, and aims to submit legislation to the Diet before the Golden Week holidays in late April to early May.
정부는 황금연휴기간 이전에 구체적인 내용을 발표할 예정이다.

Japan has already implemented a range of stimulus measures totalling Y12,000bn, or 2 per cent of gross domestic product, as recommended by the International Monetary Fund.
일본은 이전에 IMF의 권고대로 12조엔의 부양책을 내놓았다

However, the Japanese economy has remained under severe stress, with exports plunging over the past few months. GDP fell by 3.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the last three months of 2008, and the most recent business sentiment survey by the Bank of Japan, released last week, showed optimism had deteriorated to a record low.
그러나 일본경제는 수출부진으로 어려움을 겪고 있다. GDP는 3.3%감소했고, 부정적인식이 팽배해졌다.

The measures come amid mounting suggestions that Mr Aso may be preparing for a general election.
이번 부양책은 아소가 총선을 대비해야 한다는 제안에 따라 나왔다.

The prime minister must call an election for the powerful lower house of parliament by the end of September, but popular discontent with his ruling Liberal Democratic party has complicated the timing.
총리는 하원을 강력하게 하기 위해 선거를 요청해야 하지만 자민당에 대한 대중의 불신때문에 상황이 복잡하다.

The stimulus package “stops things from getting worse . . . [but] it doesn’t necessarily make things better”, said John Richards, head of research at Royal Bank of Scotland in Tokyo.
경기부양책은 상황이 악화되는 것을 막을 것이나 나아지게 할 수는 없다.

Masaaki Kanno, chief economist at JPMorgan in Tokyo, said: “Japan has been doing the same things since the 1990s.”
일본은 90년대 부터 똑같은 일을 반복하고 있다.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009