Economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka said Friday that the economy is deteriorating further, signaling that the government plans to downgrade its assessment of the state of the economy in a report later this month.
"Economic conditions are getting even more severe," he told a regular news conference, adding that the government "wants to reflect recent market information in the coming report in a straightforward manner."
In its last monthly report, published Oct. 10, the Cabinet Office said it expected increasing concern over economic activities in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, but left unchanged its overall assessment of the economy.