Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the 21st meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Prime Minister's Office.

During the meeting, there was an intensive discussion on monetary policy, commodity prices, and other matters, followed by a discussion on next fiscal year's budget formulation and the report of the specialist committee on the market economy system that Japan should pursue.

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

"Today, Governor Kuroda has explained to us that the efforts to break free from deflation are steadily underway.
The so-called 'core-core' consumer price index has also shown steady and continuous improvements.
However, we are still only halfway towards overcoming deflation. I would like to ask Governor Kuroda for his continued efforts to achieve the 2 percent price stability target.
I firmly believe that there is no other path for Japan than to simultaneously achieve economic revitalization and fiscal soundness, and to establish a sustainable social security system.
With this strong determination, next fiscal year's budget must increase the growth potential of Japan, improve the efficiency of expenditures through selection and concentration, while aiming to increase tax revenues.
Needless to say, the national budget is directly linked to the lives of the people. Since the inauguration of this administration, this will be the first budget that we are engaged in from the budget request phase. I would like to make sure that we establish a budget we can declare to be 'the Abe administration budget.'
Today, we have also received proposals from private sector members of the Council and I would like to ask the Council to compile a basic policy on budget formulation.
I would like to express my appreciation to Council member Dr. Kobayashi for compiling the report of the specialist committee. I will take steps to manage the economy to promote mid- to long-term investments and innovations, in order to realize a sustainable economy 'led by the real economy' as companies attach importance to the linkages with diverse stakeholders."