Japan to bring forward budget-balancing timeframe estimate to FY2026 -sources

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's government will estimate that its primary budget would be balanced in fiscal 2026, one year earlier than its previous projection made about six months ago, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The revised projection would assume a scenario for robust economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and higher tax revenue, they said. The people requested anonymity because the new estimate is due out on Friday.

Separate from this projection, the government has set a goal of achieving a primary budget balance, excluding new bond issuance and debt servicing costs, by fiscal 2025 - a target that has been pushed back several times.

Its most recent pledge of meeting that goal in fiscal 2025 included a caveat that it would be reassessed later this fiscal year to account for the fallout of the pandemic.

(Reporting by Yoshifumi Takemoto, Kaori Kaneko and Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)

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