Japan's COVID-19 stimulus package boosted to $1.1 trillion due to cash payouts

TOKYO: Japan’s economic stimulus package will be revised to 117.1 trillion yen ($1.086 trillion) from 108.2 trillion yen, boosted by the expansion of a cash payout scheme aimed at lessening the pain from the coronavirus outbreak, a draft obtained by Reuters showed.

Fiscal spending will account for 48.4 trillion yen, of which around 25.6 trillion yen will be funded by an extra budget for the fiscal year that began on April 1, it showed.

The extra spending plan is expected to be approved by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet as early as Monday.

Japan’s government is set to issue extra bonds worth 25.6914 trillion yen ($238.24 billion) to fund a supplementary budget for stimulus measures to ease the pain from the coronavirus outbreak, a government draft obtained by Reuters found.

The amount of new borrowing will be pushed up from 16.8 trillion yen initially planned, after an expansion of a cash payouts program to support households, the draft showed.