Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the second meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Prime Minister's Office.

Discussion took place on the report of the Monetary Policy Meetings, the basic principles of the budget formulation for FY2013, and the issues to be discussed in the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy from now on.

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

"From now on, I strongly expect the Bank of Japan to carry forth bold monetary easing measures in order to achieve the price stability goal of 2% as early as possible. I would like to ask the Bank of Japan to take responsibility to make an effort for realizing this price stability goal.
Also, in order to securely fulfill accountability, the Council will hold the quarterly Intensive Discussion on Monetary Policy, Commodity Prices and Others. We should waste no time and hold the first intensive discussion at the next Council meeting.
Regarding the budget for FY2013, I would like to ask Minister Amari to promptly compile the Basic Principles of the Budget Formulation for FY2013. We would like to implement consultation and reporting at the next meeting.
Further, I would like to express my gratitude to the expert members who provided some aspiring proposals today on the issues to be discussed in the future. I would like to ask the members to continuously lead the discussion by making active proposals on important issues, and to work for the Council to serve the role of a control tower in showing clear policy."