Spotlight: Japan's cabinet approves tax hike delay amid continued economic stagnation

The Cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday approved the delay of a planned hike of the nation's consumption by two and a half years.

The cabinet also decided to delay other measures that were related to the hike, including a planned exemption of some food items from the tax hike from 8 to 10 percent, from April 2017 as planned, to a delayed October 2019.

The office said that a set of revised bills related to the tax hike delay will be submitted in September to parliament for approval.

Abe has delayed increasing the nation's consumption tax to 10 percent twice since it was first hiked from 8 percent in April 2014, in a move that plunged the world's third-largest economy into recession.

The delay has raised questions about the government's ability to rein in Japan's monumental public debt that stands at 240 percent of the nation's economic output and means to fund the country's rapidly-increasing social welfare costs as the nation continues to age and the population shrink concurrently.

On Aug. 10, the Finance Ministry here said that the central government's debt as of the end of June had climbed in the past three months, underscoring the government's increasing difficulties in financing the nation's mounting demographic problem.

It said that the central government's debt had climbed by 4.10 trillion yen (40.87 billion U.S. dollars) from three months ago, to stand at 1,053.47 trillion yen (10.50 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of June.

The mounting debt, at more than 240 percent of the national gross domestic product and the largest in the industrialized world, is partly attributable to costs related to the nation's rapidly aging population and financing the social security costs involved, the ministry's data showed.

The prime minister has reissued numerous installments of his "Abenomics" aggressive blend of economic policy mixes, yet, as economists have pointed out, the stimulus measures therein have failed to spur growth and longer-term structural reform plans remain unavailing.

Abe's government earlier this month unrolled a hefty stimulus plan to the tune of 28.1 trillion yen as part of the latest installment of his ailing "Abenomics" economic policy mix, but economic analysts maintain that the latest measures lack the unequivocal allocations and long-term vision necessary to fundamentally kickstart the nation's flagging economy.

Abe has on numerous occasions stated that a further delay in raising the consumption tax is necessary due to a slowdown in overseas economies and as demand for Japanese goods wanes, underscored by concerns about Britain's recent decision to leave the European Union, yet robust domestic corporate profits are not being redirected into expenditure, meaning domestic and consumer demand are both remaining tepid.

Slow wage growth, despite solid earnings, are also impacting consumer spending and overall sentiment, economists have highlighted.

On Aug. 15, the Cabinet Office said that in the April-June quarter, the economy here had all but stalled, expanding just an annualized 0.2 percent in real terms, with the figure coming in below median economists' expectations.

The government again pointed to a slowdown in overseas economies, the strength of the yen and slumping private consumption as all contributing to the ongoing stagnation.

Sluggish exports have been weighing on the economy, the government has said, with exports falling 1.5 percent in the quarter, highlighting withdrawing overseas demand and the negative impact of the yen's protracted appreciation against its major counterparts.

With consumer spending also weighing on the economy, with an uptick of just 0.2 percent in the quarter, the overall failure of "Abenomics" continues to be in the spotlight, with the weaker-than-expected growth data causing economists to question his policies' effects on market participation, consumer spending, as well as the central bank's lofty 2 percent inflation target, the target date of which, along with the tax hike, has also been delayed. Enditem