国际英语新闻:Japan's cabinet greenlights record-high budget plan for FY 2019, defense spending soars
TOKYO, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Japan's cabinet on Friday approved a record-high 101.46 trillion yen (913 billion U.S. dollars) budget plan for fiscal 2019, with soaring social security costs and military spending weighing on the country's already-fragile fiscal health.
According to the draft budget, the fiscal year starting from April 2019 will see a record-high 77.95 trillion yen (701 billion U.S. dollars) earmarked for policy spending in the general account of the Japanese government.
Among the major outlays, spending on social security will rise to some 34.06 trillion yen (306 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for more than a third of the total budget, on the back of the increasingly aging society of Japan.
Defense spending, another major outlay, will hit a record-high of 5.26 trillion yen (47.3 billion U.S. dollars), rising for the seventh straight year since Abe took office in 2012, a growing concern for Japan's neighboring countries.
The budget plan also includes 2.03 trillion yen (18.3 billion U.S. dollars),which will go to the "extraordinary measures" intended to offset the impacts of the government's plan to raise the consumption tax from the current 8 percent to 10 percent from Oct. 1 next year.
Debt serving expenses, including payment for interests, are to reach 23.51 trillion yen (211 billion U.S. dollars), according to the budget plan.
The spending is expected to be mainly covered by taxes and other revenues collected by the government, with tax revenue predicted to leap to 62.50 trillion yen (562 billion U.S. dollars), also a record high, as the government envisions a real economic growth of 1.3 percent in fiscal 2019.
相关文章
- 欧美文化:Macron visits Berlin on first foreign trip after re-election
- 欧美文化:Ukrainian president, Swedish PM discuss defense support for Ukraine over phone
- 欧美文化:Two suspects arrested for killing 3 Israelis in stabbing attack
- 欧美文化:UN chief calls for end to "cycle of death, destruction" in Ukraine
- 欧美文化:U.S. secretary of state tests positive for COVID-19
- 欧美文化:Hungary "can't support" EU's new sanctions against Russia in current form:
- 欧美文化:Oil prices jump as EU aims for Russian oil ban
- 欧美文化:U.S. Fed on track for half-point rate hike as recession fears grow
- 欧美文化:UN chief welcomes evacuation of civilians from Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol
- 欧美文化:Uzbek president appoints new acting foreign minister