Japan parliament approves 40-bln-dollar supplementary budget to boost economy

Japan's parliament approved on Tuesday a 4.11-trillion-yen (40-billion-U.S. dollar) supplementary budget, most of which will be used to fund Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's 28-trillion-yen stimulus package announced in August.

Under the extra budget, some 710 billion yen (6.84 billion U.S. dollars) will be used to improve welfare services, including supporting child rearing, while some 1.41 trillion yen (13.59 billion U.S. dollars) will be used for infrastructure improvement.

About 430 billion yen (4.14 billion U.S. dollars) will be allocated to support small and medium-sized companies, and to revitalize local economies, and another 1.44 trillion yen (13.88 billion dollars) will be used for disaster alleviation and reconstruction of quake-hit areas in southwestern and northeastern Japan.

With the extra budget,the government spending for the current fiscal year will total 100.01 trillion yen (963.70 billion U.S. dollars).

The extra budget, aimed at boosting growth amid sluggish world economy and Britain's decision to leave the European Union, has also raised concerns on Japan's precarious fiscal health.

The Japanese government is burdened with arrears that stand as the highest in the industrialized world, amounting to more than twice the size of Japan's economy.

The government will issue construction bonds worth 2.75 trillion yen to help pay for the extra spending. Endit