Machimura denies pork-barreling spending

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura has denied the government is planning major public spending to boost Japan's ailing economy.

Machimura told reporters on Thursday the current economic downturn has not been caused by a lack of demand.

He said thorough consideration should be given to the question of whether large-scale public expenditure is now needed to produce demand. Machimura said no one in the government is calling for conventional pork-barrel spending.

Also in the day, the government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party discussed comprehensive economic measures, which they plan to compile next week.

The party's senior officials said a bill on a large-scale supplementary budget should be submitted to an extraordinary Diet session to be convened in the middle of September.

Cabinet ministers, including Machimura and Finance Minister Bunmei Ibuki, said how to secure revenue sources is important when enacting an economic stimulus package.

The government and the ruling party agreed to continue coordinating their opinions on the scale of economic measures and revenue sources.

2008/08/21 14:57

http://www.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/21_27.html

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