Japan Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said in the an interview that it’s “premature to consider fiscal, monetary steps aimed at stimulating consumption as Japan is still focusing on containing coronavirus pandemic.” And, ‘what’s most important now is to protect jobs and help businesses survive the pandemic.”
For now, “we’re not at a stage yet where we want to stimulate consumption and encourage people to travel a lot,” he added. “Efforts to stimulate consumption should wait a bit more”. Though, he’s relatively optimistic as “we’re already reopening business,” and “so the economy will probably hit bottom from April through mid-May,”
Capital injection into companies should be “an area the government can handle”. BoJ should instead “plays its part in helping financial institutions meet corporate funding strains.”
