Japanese economic chiefs yesterday expressed concern about prospects for the fragile economy, but underscored their reluctance to spend more public money to spur recovery.
"There is no doubt that the base of the Japanese economy in general is extremely weak," Heizo Takenaka, state minister of fiscal and economic policy, said in a television interview.
"And the impact of a slowdown in the US economy on Japan is getting bigger," Takenaka said.
But he denied there was any immediate plan for an additional budget for public works projects to stimulate the world's second largest economy.
"Nothing will be changed if we increase public works projects," Takenaka said. "In the end, structural reform is the only answer to solve this problem."
Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said during the same interview that he was "also concerned" about the economy's prospects.
"I want to respect any proposal" to be made by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), he said, acknowledging that some LDP lawmakers demanded an extraordinary budget.
"But we have just distributed this year's budget," said Shio-kawa. "So, I am telling [LDP lawmakers] that I would like them to do their best with this budget for now."
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said he had no plans for a pump-priming supplementary budget, insisting he would rein in official bond issuance to curb the debt. Any extra spending would come on top of the ?82.65-trillion (US$670 billion) budget already approved for the year to March 2002. The previous administration of Yoshiro Mori announced last October a revival package worth ?11 trillion.
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