Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s cabinet approved a multi-billion dollar stimulus package on Friday, delivering on the new leader’s promise to pursue an expansionary fiscal policy.
The stimulus, worth JPY 21.3 trillion ($135.40 billion), includes general account outlays of JPY 17.7 trillion, significantly larger than last year’s JPY 13.9 trillion, representing the biggest fiscal bazooka since the COVID pandemic. The package also includes JPY 2.7 trillion in tax cuts.
The package aims to ease the burden of inflation on households and businesses, according to media reports—an approach that might contradict traditional economic views that stimulus tends to be inflationary.
Yet bitcoin , widely seen as a hedge against inflation and monetary and fiscal imprudence, fell 0.8% to $85,480, extending a recent sell-off that saw prices drop from a record high of $126,000 reached on Oct. 8.
