Adam Posen is sticking to his guns in recommending that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe raise the consumption tax.
While acknowledging the levy is not likely to be raised to 10 percent as scheduled next October, Posen, the president of the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, says there are still compelling reasons to do so even after Japan unexpectedly slid into recession last quarter.
That second successive quarterly contraction in the world's third-largest economy followed a boost in the consumption tax to 8 percent in April and probably guarantees Abe will postpone the planned increase and declare a snap election.
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