No Fresh Budget Measures to Tackle Inflation: Japan's Ishiba

Tokyo, March 27 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Thursday that no new budgetary measures to tackle inflation will be compiled after the expected enactment of the government's fiscal 2025 budget.

On Wednesday, he expressed his intention to launch "powerful measures" against soaring prices after the passage of the budget, being examined at the Budget Committee of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament.

"I apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused during the deliberations at the Upper House Budget Committee," Ishiba told Thursday's meeting of the committee. "I didn't say that we would launch new budgetary measures."

He stressed that his administration will address the unabated inflation with policy measures included in the fiscal 2024 supplementary budget and the fiscal 2025 draft budget.

Referring to plans to raise the minimum taxable income and make high school education free of tuition, Ishiba said, "We ask for understanding for an early passage of the budget."

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]