The head of the World Bank expects Japanese consumer spending to start recovering from the drop caused by the first stage of the consumption tax hike sometime around September, and voiced support for an investment bank for Asia as proposed by China.
"What we're hearing is that many business leaders expect the effects of the post-tax hike drop in consumption to resolve sometime this year, maybe even as early as September," Jim Yong Kim, president of the Washington-based organization, told reporters Friday.
"We remain optimistic that the Japanese economy will continue to recover" if the personal consumption returns to a level that was seen before the sales tax was raised to 8 percent from 5 percent in April and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe implements structural reforms including deregulations, Kim said.