(Bloomberg) -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he will instruct the government on Friday to come up with an economic stimulus package by the end of October to help mitigate the impact of inflation and aid growth.
The measures will tackle price rises and the weak yen, encourage structural pay increases, and promote investment and reform for growth, he said, speaking to reporters in Tokyo Thursday evening.
Earlier this month, Kishida extended existing price-relief measures including gas subsidies and caps on imported wheat prices as well as adding cash handouts for low-income households and local government grants.
The central government already put together a 2.7 trillion yen ($19 billion) extra budget earlier this year to fund efforts to control the impact of inflation.
Kishida said energy and food price rises are hitting households, and fears of a global recession remain a risk for Japan’s economy.
Read more: Frigid Winter in Japan Set to Intensify Global Energy Squeeze
The prime minister added that it’s inevitable that electricity prices will rise to some extent, and it’s possible they will increase up to 30% in the spring. He said he’ll create a new system to mitigate extreme swings in prices, without elaborating further.
The emphasis on inflation in Kishida’s stance reflects a reality that rising costs are now seen as a bigger economic menace than the pandemic.
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