The spokesperson said the Japanese government is ready to deploy economic stimulus measures flexibly Reuters

Tokyo (Reuters)-The top Japanese government spokesperson said on Sunday that Japan is ready to inject more funds into the economy to alleviate the suffering caused by the prolonged epidemic. Additional stimulus measures to support growth.

Less than two weeks before hosting the Olympics, Tokyo entered its fourth COVID-19 emergency from Monday to August 22, which exacerbated concerns about the distress of restaurants due to shortened business hours and prohibition.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said on the debate program of the public broadcaster NHK: “First, we must cooperate with citizens to take anti-infective measures and vaccinations, and provide support to businesses and those in need.”

“Then we have to take economic measures flexibly without hesitation,” Kato said, but did not mention the scale or timing of further stimulus measures.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s Liberal Democratic Party member called for a new relief plan. Toshihiro Nikai, a heavyweight in the party, said that an additional budget of about 30 trillion yen (US$270 billion) is needed.

The world’s third largest economy is expected to rebound from the 3.9% annualized contraction rate in the first quarter, but analysts expect the recovery to be gradual, with service industry consumption being a particularly weak link.

Government spending is constrained by public debt, which is 2.5 times Japan’s annual economic output-the heaviest debt burden in the industrial world, which has been exacerbated by the large-scale stimulus plan launched in the past year.

Yoshihide Suga, who must hold a general election later this year, said on Thursday that the government hopes to focus on areas such as corporate financing, employment and catering, and hopes to achieve it as soon as possible.

He said that the government will respond flexibly because he always keeps in mind the economic plan to deal with the economic blow of the coronavirus.