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

Discussion took place on 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, and intensive discussion took place on monetary policy, commodity prices and other matters.

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

"Today was the first intensive discussion on monetary policy, and we asked about the efforts of the Bank of Japan toward the achievement of the price stability goal of 2%. I expect that the goal of 2% will be achieved at the earliest possible date.
Of course, I leave decisions on specific monetary policy measures to achieve the goal of 2% to the Bank of Japan, but I am expecting bold monetary easing measures. I would like the Bank of Japan to take responsibility in achieving this goal of 2%, literally as the "deflation fighter."
In this context, I would like the next intensive discussion to draw a way towards achieving the goal as clearly as possible.

In addition, the Industrial Competitiveness Council started yesterday. I mentioned there that we are taking actions in rapid succession.
We wasted no time to inaugurate the Regulatory Reform Council this morning, which is the top prioritized issue in the growth strategy.
We are scheduling to hold the Headquarters for Japan's Economic Revitalization tomorrow, convening all the members of the Cabinet, and to give instructions to relevant Cabinet members.
The government will specify its efforts toward strengthening the competitiveness and growth of the Japanese economy, and strongly promote such efforts.

The basic principles of the budget formulation will be decided later today in the extraordinary Cabinet meeting. Based on the ideas decided, I ask Deputy Prime Minister Aso to carry forward the formulation of budget for FY2013. With Minister Amari, I would like to ask to compile the way to carry forward the discussions in the Council from now on and the major issues to be discussed, based on today's discussion as well. We would like to carry forward the discussion in the Council in the future according to what is compiled."