Japan's government yesterday tore up its latest growth forecasts and instead predicted a record drop in output this year as it sought backing from the Diet for a fresh fiscal stimulus to revive the battered economy.
Tokyo said it expected gross domestic product to fall 3.3 per cent in the fiscal year that began April 1 and warned that the economic picture was worsening. The government had forecast in December flat growth for the current fiscal year.
“The Japanese economy is continuing to deteriorate rapidly,” Kaoru Yosano, finance and economics minister, told parliament. “Our country is clearly in a situation that can be described as an economic crisis.”