Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday instructed his Cabinet to begin work on a supplementary budget for the current fiscal year after official data confirmed that the nation's economy shrank in the second quarter of 2001.
Koizumi set the plan in motion at a morning Cabinet meeting, saying the extra budget should be in line with his pledge to put a 30 trillion yen cap on fresh government bond issues from this fiscal year, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said.
The extra budget is expected to be submitted to the Diet sometime after projections for national tax revenues are announced in mid-October, Fukuda said.