Re:<...debt in Japan>
Also from the Gold Monitor Thread
Thursday, Nov 6 1997 9:14PM EST
Reply #2906 of 2964
Bad loans total 935.6 bil. yen at 9 govt financial bodies
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Yomiuri Shimbun
The amount of bad loans at nine government-affiliated financial
organizations, including the Japan Development Bank, totaled 935.6
billion yen as of March 31, the government's audit board said
Thursday.
The figure is up about 66 billion yen, or approximately 8 percent,
from March 31, 1996, according to the Board of Audit. The loans
were extended by the nine financial institutions and have gone
unpaid for at least six months.
The other eight institutions are the People's Finance Corporation; the
Housing Loan Corporation; the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Finance Corporation; the Small Business Finance Corporation; the
Hokkaido-Tohoku Development Finance Corporation; the
Environmental Sanitation Business Financing Corporation; the
Okinawa Development Finance Corporation and the Export-Import
Bank of Japan.
The audit board will include the uncollectible loans in its fiscal 1996
inspection report, to be presented to Prime Minister Ryutaro
Hashimoto next month.
As part of its plan to begin streamlining public corporations in 1999,
the government decided in September to abolish or merge 12
government-affiliated financial institutions, including the Japan
Development Bank, the Hokkaido-Tohoku Development Finance
Corporation and the People's Finance Corporation.
The nearly 1 trillion yen in bad loans is believed to be a result of the
prolonged economic slump. Some economists predict that the
outstanding funds will remain a major problem even after the
institutions are reduced.
Among the nine corporations, the People's Finance Corporation had
the largest amount of bad loans for the second consecutive year, with
216.1 billion yen in outstanding loans.
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Mark |
