Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa reiterated his view Wednesday that it would be ineffective to compile a second supplementary budget to finance pump-priming stimulus measures.
"There are no projects now" that will definitively shore up the economy and are in need of financing by the government, Shiokawa told a news conference after an extraordinary Cabinet meeting.
At the meeting, the Cabinet approved a draft 2.9 trillion yen supplementary budget for the current fiscal year focused primarily on measures to improve the unemployment situation, now at its worst level, and to accelerate economic structural reform.