General-account budget requests from government ministries and agencies for fiscal 2001 totaled some 84.83 trillion yen, down 0.2 percent from the initial budget for fiscal 2000, Finance Ministry officials said Thursday.
Government ministries and agencies filed their budget requests with the Finance Ministry by Thursday's deadline. By screening the requests, the ministry is to compile a draft budget by late December.
Despite the decrease in the total amount, it is the third consecutive year that the budget requests have exceeded 80 trillion yen.