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Strategies & Market Trends : Bob Brinker: Market Savant & Radio Host -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Diamond Jim who wrote (8657)	11/12/1998 12:37:00 AM
From: Jeffrey D	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42834

Looks like Japan is getting serious about joining the party. Jeff <<Japan Unveils New Economic Stimulus -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOKYO (AP) -- Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's ruling party outlined plans Thursday for Japan's biggest stimulus package ever in an attempt to jump-start the country's anemic economy. The Liberal Democratic Party proposals will form the basis of an official government plan to be formally announced on Monday and expected to be passed later this month in a special session of Parliament. The centerpiece of the party's package calls for $82 billion in public works-related spending through next March and $33 billion in income tax cuts next year. With the addition of corporate tax cuts and other tax relief measures, it will likely total a record $148 billion. The widely expected package was compiled in a bid to prevent Japan's economy from shrinking for a third consecutive year and to fulfill Obuchi's pledge to engineer a recovery within two years. It also comes just days before Obuchi meets President Clinton and other leaders this weekend at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The government has faced intense pressure both from opposition parties at home and foreign trade partners such as the United States to deal with record unemployment, soaring bankruptcies and deeply shaken consumer confidence. Japan estimates its gross domestic product will contract by 1.8 percent for the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 1999. The economy shrank 0.7 percent last year. On Tuesday Clinton singled out Japan -- as he often has in recent months -- as the key to reviving economic growth in Asia and pulling the region out of the financial crisis that is beginning to be felt on American soil. ''The restoration of growth in Japan, which has been stalled now for more than five years, is absolutely essential to the restoration of growth in the rest of Asia,'' Clinton said. ''The rest of us look to Japan to move quickly.'' The proposals announced Thursday for a supplementary budget, the third such appropriation measure so far this year, also include reducing the corporate tax rate to 40 percent next fiscal year, down from the current rate of about 46 percent. The party also recommended a novel idea designed to get consumers to spend more -- the distribution of government-issue coupons worth about $164 to the elderly and families with young children.