Japan to announce sales tax decision on Oct 2

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - Market participants have now a new key event date to pencil in the calendar, as Kyodo is reporting that the final decision on the planned April sales tax hike will be made on October 2.

Early in the week, Japan's Economy Minister Akira Amari, gave some hints that chance are for the tax to be approved. "In the end, there are more people who say we should follow the plan than those who say we shouldn't" Amari said. There seems to be a majority of experts 46 out of 60 - who support the current tax timetable.

“Japan has launched fiscal and monetary stimulus to pull out of deflation. The yen’s weakness was only a side-effect of that ultimate goal of beating deflation,” Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Tuesday.

Back to Amari, the policy-maker also said to be considering an extra budget for fiscal spending to soften the possible negative impact on consumer spending, thus on the economic recovery. According to Adam Button, Editor at Forexlive: "Given the commentary from the govt there’s a 90% of full implementation but it will be announced with some offsetting measures."