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[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the 18th meeting in 2016 of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Prime Minister's Office.

At the meeting, there was “intensive discussion related to monetary policy, commodity prices and other issues” and discussion about “comprehensive economic and fiscal reform: social infrastructure development and other areas.”

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

“In the discussions concerning monetary policy, commodity prices and other issues, we confirmed that the new system of monetary policy introduced in September has functioned stably so far.

I expect that the Bank of Japan will continue to take appropriate policy responses to achieve the price stability target.

With regard to our economic policy stance, as private sector members have also pointed out, we must not only carry out structural reform, but also give more attention than ever before to optimally combining fiscal policy with monetary policy.

In the process of formulating next fiscal year’s budget, we need to take steady steps to achieve fiscal soundness, and at the same time, take account of the recent economic situation. On this basis, I would like to ask relevant ministers to deepen the discussions towards formulating a focused budget, including taking the necessary budgetary measures for important policy issues, such as childrearing and caregiving as well as research and development.

The second topic we discussed was the nature of social infrastructure development.

To prioritize projects that boost structural reforms, there were proposals from private sector members to harness the vitality of the private sector, as well as to promote coordination between prefectural intermediary institutions that manage farmland and land improvement projects.

I would like to ask Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ishii and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Yamamoto to bear in mind the proposals from the private sector members, and accelerate reforms in such a way that priority is given to social infrastructure development that contributes to increasing productivity as well as safety and security.”