Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa cast doubt Thursday on his previous pledge to prevent the domestic economy from contracting in fiscal 2001, according to Liberal Democratic Party officials.
"I cannot guarantee that the economy will not contract," Shiokawa was quoted as telling a meeting of the LDP's Policy Deliberation Commission.
The commission rejected Shiokawa's proposal to compile a 2.7 trillion yen supplementary budget for the current fiscal year, claiming an extra budget of this size would be too small to stimulate the faltering economy, the officials said.