Japan must not fail to complete the doubling of the consumption tax to 10 percent in October 2015 because its fiscal health is in a precarious state, a senior International Monetary Fund official said.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's team should "carry out the tax hike as planned" to tell the markets that it is promoting fiscal rehabilitation, IMF Deputy Managing Director Naoyuki Shinohara said in an interview in Astana.
Shinohara visited the capital of Kazakhstan to attend an annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank.