Given the improving economic climate, the 3-point consumption tax hike should go ahead as scheduled next April, agriculture minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a business conference Monday.
Economic indexes for the April-June quarter say it is "not a red signal, not a yellow signal. I think it's a green signal" for the hike, said Hayashi at the G1 Global Conference at Tokyo's Globis University.
Last week, the government revised gross domestic product upward to an annualized rate of 3.8 percent in the quarter, 1.2 points above the preliminary figure, while capital spending rose to 1.3 percent.
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