Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda held a meeting of the Ministerial Committee on the Formulation of the Budget at the Prime Minister's Office.

Discussion took place on the Medium-term Fiscal Framework (2013-2015) and the Economic and Fiscal Projections for Medium to Long Term Analysis.

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said, "Thorough elimination of waste and expenditure cuts are reforms that must be accomplished, together with the reform in terms of revenue, such as taxation, for realizing fiscal soundness.
Precisely based on this idea, while there are various factors involved in the increasing expenditure, the revision of the Medium-term Fiscal Framework compiled today presents an extremely important guideline in terms of maintaining the cap of 71 trillion yen for annual expenditure until 2015.
In addition, as was shown shortly before in the medium to long term analysis, achievement of the goal has come into sight, which is to reduce the deficit of the General Account expenditure by half by 2015, by securely implementing these efforts.
Toward the achievement of this goal, we should ensure market confidence by thoroughly adhering to the Medium-term Fiscal Framework. At the same time, under the framework, we must boldly reformulate the budget beyond the border of ministries and agencies and put forth every possible effort for the revitalization of economy, in order to input financial resources to the prioritized areas specified in the Strategy for Rebirth of Japan."