Noted Foreign Economists Advise Japan to Improve Primary Balance

Tokyo, March 26 (Jiji Press)--Renowned foreign economists on Thursday proposed that the Japanese government achieve a primary budget balance within several years in light of rising interest rates or curb the deficit in the balance.

The primary balance indicates to what extent the government can cover its policy costs with tax and other revenues without relying on debt issuance.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who advocates a responsible and proactive fiscal policy, has abandoned the government's target of bringing the primary balance into surplus on a single-year basis.

At the day's meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, chaired by the prime minister, Olivier Blanchard, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, said that the ratio of the Japanese government's debt to the nation's gross domestic product has declined because the economic growth rate has exceeded long-term interest rates.

He called on the government to draw up a multiyear plan to improve the primary balance and further lower the debt-to-GDP ratio.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]