The Lower House approved a general account supplementary budget worth 4.65 trillion yen for the current fiscal year Monday afternoon, compiled to support the government's economic stimulus efforts.
The extra budget is expected to be enacted Wednesday after a vote in the Upper House -- the final major item on the assembly's agenda before the current ordinary session is dissolved.
With the Diet's passage of the supplementary budget, the initial budget for fiscal 1998, which runs until next March 31, will come to 82.31 trillion yen. This auxiliary budget includes allocations to help fund a 16 trillion yen pump-priming package comprising such components as 2 trillion yen in special income and resident tax cuts and additional public works spending.
The record-scale stimuli were aimed at keeping the economy from falling into a deflationary spiral, and both government and private-sector analysts generally agree it will help prop up the economy toward the latter half of the fiscal year.
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