Thursday, August 9, 2001
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The meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy (CEFP) was convened at the Prime Minister's Official Residence and final agreement was reached on the formulation of budget request ceilings for the FY2002 budget. It is forecast that the budget request baseline for general expenditures will be about 48 trillion yen, about one trillion yen less than the initial budget for FY2001. In order to keep the issuance of new government bonds under 30 trillion yen, both public investment and Official Development Assistance (ODA) will be scaled back by 10% compared to FY2001. It was also agreed to prioritize budget distribution to seven key areas - IT, urban rejuvenation, the environment, the declining birth rate and aging society, education, science and technology, and regional vitalization. In terms of social security related expenditures, a decision was finally arrived at to make an increase of around 700 billion yen compared to FY2001, due to such factors as the progress of aging society. It is expected that the budget request ceilings for the FY2002 budget will be formally adopted in an extraordinary Cabinet Meeting to be held on the afternoon of 10 August. |