Companies overwhelmingly want Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to delay or scrap the consumption tax increase planned for next October, a Reuters poll shows, highlighting concerns the hike could derail a fragile recovery.
As expectations grow that Abe will soon announce he is putting off the unpopular measure, the Reuters Corporate Survey found that nearly three out of four big companies think the economy is too weak to weather the increase.
The Abe administration and ruling coalition raised the consumption tax to 8 percent from 5 percent in April and plan to bring it to 10 percent in October 2015 in a bid to rein in massive public debt.
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