Japan Expected to Log Budget Deficit of 3.2 T. Yen in FY '25

   Tokyo, Aug. 7 (Jiji Press)--Japan is projected to post a primary budget deficit of 3.2 trillion yen in fiscal 2025, the Japanese government said Thursday.
   While the projection improved from the previous January estimate of a 4.5-trillion-yen deficit thanks to higher tax revenues, Japan is all but certain to miss its target of achieving a primary budget surplus by fiscal 2025.
   The latest estimate on the primary budget balance for the central and local governments in the year through next March was presented to the day's meeting of the government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, chaired by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
   The primary budget balance is an indicator of how much government spending on policies such as social security and public works is covered by tax and other revenues without relying on debt.
   The target of achieving a primary budget surplus by fiscal 2025 was set in 2018. But the government effectively pushed back the target to fiscal 2026 in its latest basic economic and fiscal policy guidelines, approved in June.

(2025/08/07-20:35)