12 October 2001, 10:02 Shiokawa calls for returning prices to their 1997 levels
TOKYO, Oct. 12 (Kyodo) - Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa
expressed a desire Friday to bring consumer prices back to their
fiscal 1997 levels by forestalling the deflationary pressure
afflicting Japan's economy.
"The Finance Ministry wants to return prices to the levels they
were at in fiscal 1997, if possible," Shiokawa told the House of
Representatives Committee on Financial Affairs.
"The current consumer prices are down 1.3% to 1.4% compared
with their levels in that year, so we want to push up the prices so
as to recoup this margin of lost ground," he said.
Shiokawa's comments were made at a time when falling prices are
hammering companies' profitability by cutting into their product
prices and profit margins.
The finance minister also expressed hope that a supplementary
budget can be devised as speedily as possible by computing tax
revenues expected to accrue in the current fiscal year through
March 31 next year.
"Although tax revenue projections for the year have not yet
been computed, I believe that we can complete the calculations by
the end of next week," he said.
Tax revenue projections for the fiscal year are expected to
effect a government decision on whether or not to increase net
government bond issuance for the year above the 30 trillion yen cap
pledged by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, ministry sources sai
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