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On July 6, 2021, the Prime Minister held the tenth meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy in 2021 at the Prime Minister’s Office.

At the meeting, the participants engaged in discussions on the Mid-year Economic Projection, the budget overview, and the guidelines for FY2022 budget requests.

Following the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

 “Today, we discussed future economic management and the concept for the FY2022 budget.

First and foremost, we will go all out to push ahead with vaccinations, while taking thorough preventive measures against infection including those for dining and drinking, in order to contain the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the earliest time possible.

The projection was presented that, amid these efforts, the economic recovery will pick up momentum in the future and that the growth rate for this fiscal year will be 3.7%. According to the forecast, the GDP is expected to surpass the pre-COVID-19 level within this year and reach a record high in the next fiscal year.

During today’s discussions, it was pointed out that accelerating inoculations will bring economic activities back to normal earlier and raise expectations for further economic growth. Therefore, we will take every possible measure so that as many people as possible can receive vaccinations early.

Based on that, we will conduct policy management that will allow for continuous and robust growth of the Japanese economy.

With regard to the budget for the next fiscal year, we will follow the direction laid out in the Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform and boldly prioritize certain budget items to undertake intensive investments in the four driving forces that open the way to the future, namely, green, digital, creating vibrant communities, and addressing the declining birth rate. At the same time, we will continue the existing reform efforts and steadily proceed toward realizing economic revitalization and fiscal soundness.

Going forward, we will continue to work as one and do everything in our power to carry out COVID-19 countermeasures, while thoroughly implementing reforms to tackle challenges facing Japan, and thereby achieve future growth.”