The Japanese government announced on Tuesday new public aid of 6.2 trillion yen (45 billion euros) to mitigate the impact of soaring energy prices and other raw materials on low-income households and families. small enterprises.
“
We must at all costs prevent soaring prices from sabotaging our efforts to recover the economy and social activity after the coronavirus pandemic
,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a press conference.
The acceleration of the world prices of energy and agricultural products since the start of the war in Ukraine is mainly weighing on small and medium-sized businesses and low-income households in Japan.
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To make matters worse, the fall in the yen's rate has turned into a fall since March, under the effect of the growing divergences between the Bank of Japan's still ultra-accommodative monetary policy and the rate hikes carried out elsewhere, especially in the United States.
The yen thus fell this month to its lowest level against the dollar for 20 years, which increases the cost of Japanese imports and risks further weakening household consumption.
Towards a more redistributive policy
Having come to power last fall, Fumio Kishida has made himself the champion of a more redistributive economic policy which he has baptized "
new capitalism
", and his Liberal Democratic Party (PLD, conservative right) is facing a important election in July for the upper house of the Diet.
Fumio Kishida had already had a huge recovery plan equivalent to 430 billion euros approved at the end of the year, the third in Japan since the onset of the pandemic.
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Of the 6.2 trillion yen in the new government plan, 2.7 trillion (nearly 20 billion euros) constitutes an additional budget, the rest being made up of existing reserves, investments and government loans.
The new package includes a bonus of 50,000 yen (366 euros) per child from low-income or single-parent families, increased subsidies for gasoline distributors and new financial support for small and medium-sized businesses.
Economists, however, doubt the effect of this new aid for Japanese growth beyond the short term.