Driven by deep recession at home and a cloudy economic outlook abroad, a key government panel said Monday it will postpone the target year of an expected economic recovery by about two years.
According to a revised version of a five-year outlook by the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, chaired by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the economy will emerge from its deflationary funk around fiscal 2005.
The previous report, issued a year earlier, says Japan will see an end to deflation and achieve slight positive growth in fiscal 2003, when the government's structural reform programs take effect.