The government is unlikely to achieve its target of budget deficit reduction in fiscal 2020 even if the sales tax is hiked as scheduled and the economy is on a firm growth path, an estimate by the Cabinet Office showed Thursday.
The projection suggests that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government should make more efforts to improve Japan's fiscal health, the worst among major industrialized countries, by taking such steps as drastic cuts in social security costs and further tax rises.
Abe's administration, formed Dec. 26, has internationally committed to halving the ratio of the nation's primary balance deficit to gross domestic product by fiscal 2015 from the fiscal 2010 level, and to posting a surplus by fiscal 2020.