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On July 9, 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the 11th meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy in 2018 at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
At the meeting, a discussion was held on the Economic and Fiscal Projections for Medium to Long Term Analysis and guidelines for FY2019 budget requests.
 
Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,
 
“Today, following the announcement of the Medium to Long Term Analysis up to FY2027, we prepared the budget overview based on the blue print proposed by the private sector members last time. We also approved the guidelines for budget requests, which is based on the underlying directions that appear in the blueprint.
 
We would like to formulate a streamlined FY2019 budget based on these guidelines for budget requests with the Government working as one.
 
In addition, I ask that this Council advance discussion on concrete measures to ensure swift and effective responses along with the planned increase in consumption tax.
 
Concerning fiscal consolidation, I request that Minister Motegi make thorough efforts to clarify and specify directions for priority issues in expenditure reform and expenditure targets, revise the reform schedule, and draft a new reform schedule by the end of the year.”