AFP, Tokyo :
Japan’s cabinet Tuesday approved a mammoth 28-trillion yen ($273 billion) package in its latest attempt to stimulate lacklustre growth, including cash to improve infrastructure and raise the birthrate in the ageing nation.
The stimulus plan announced last week is the latest in a series in recent years designed to fire up the world’s number three economy.
“We have been able to put together a strong package that includes bold investment for the future,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday before the cabinet meeting which gave it the green light.
It includes 6.0 trillion yen in low-interest loans and just 7.5 trillion yen in fresh spending-about a quarter of the total-by the national and local governments over the next several years.
About 4.6 trillion yen is for spending in the current fiscal year ending March 2017.
The package is expected to be approved by parliament next month.
It comes after the Bank of Japan disappointed markets with modest tweaks to its own stimulus measures last Friday.
The government’s stimulus includes help for small firms expected to be hit by Britain’s vote last month to exit the European Union.
About 1,000 Japanese companies, big and small, do business in Britain and many use London-based offices as a staging point for the European market.
Britain’s shock vote to leave the EU also sparked a rally in the yen as investors flocked to an asset seen as a safe haven.
A stronger currency hits the repatriated profits of Japan’s exporters and makes their products more expensive overseas.
Cash payouts to low-income earners and for disaster relief were also on tap, with money set aside for areas of southern Japan hit by deadly quakes in April that left 49 dead and caused widespread damage.
Some funds would also be tapped for areas hit by the 2011 quake-tsunami disaster.
