The government should reduce its public debt to gross domestic product ratio "in a stable manner" and start eliminating its budget deficits to sustain fiscal health, a Finance Ministry panel said Wednesday.
The government has "no choice but to postpone" its goal of balancing its budget by fiscal 2011 because the recession is reducing tax revenue, a fiscal policy panel said in a statement released Wednesday. It didn't provide any recommendations for what the debt ratio should be lowered to.
Prime Minister Taro Aso has pledged ¥25 trillion to revive the economy, swelling a public debt burden that's already the largest in the industrialized world.