Asia-Pacific News

Japan's parliament passes largest-ever extra budget for fiscal 2009

May 29, 2009, 9:40 GMT

Tokyo - The Japanese parliament on Friday approved an extra budget worth about 13.93 trillion yen (144.41 billion dollars) for fiscal 2009 that began in April. With the extra budget passed, the ruling bloc of the Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito is likely to extend the current parliamentary session beyond June 3 until mid-August. There remain some budget-related bills that need to be approved to implement the extra budget and a few others including an anti-piracy bill to be discussed in parliament. The government plans to issue bonds worth 10.8 trillion yen including deficit bonds, to allocate 2.58 trillion yen for public works projects and 1.58 trillion yen for measures to create a more low-carbon society. The main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, which called Prime Minister Taro Aso's economic stimulus measures 'pork-barrel spending,' has been demanding an early election. Aso's term is up on September 10, and the lower house must be dissolved and elections held by then. Aso has said his stimulus package, which would be funded by the extra budget, would help boost Japan's gross domestic product growth by about 2 percentage points during the current fiscal year.

Asia-Pacific News

Japan's parliament passes largest-ever extra budget for fiscal 2009

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