The Cabinet on Thursday approved a 47.5 trillion yen cap on core policy-related outlays for fiscal 2006 budget requests.
The general-expenditure ceiling compares with a cap of 48.2 trillion yen set for the fiscal 2005 budget. In the end, core expenditures for the initial budget for fiscal 2005 came to 47.3 trillion yen -- 200 billion yen less than Thursday's limit.
The higher cap for fiscal 2006 compared with the 2005 initial budget is due to mounting pension and health-care costs, which exceed the government's cost cuts and other measures taken to fight the swelling budget deficit, according to government officials.