WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The International Monetary Fund urged Japan Wednesday to focus on its fiscal health, as fiscal stimulus steps expand the nation's deficit to an increasingly precarious level.
In its biannual World Economic Outlook report, the Washington-based lender also said the U.S. economy — the epicenter of the global financial crisis — will probably start recovering by the middle of 2010, if appropriate policy responses remain in place.
"In Japan, the government announced a substantial new stimulus package in early April, which should support activity in 2009 and 2010," it said, noting that this and past stimulus measures have almost exhausted Tokyo's room for additional stimulus steps.