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Japan finance minister quells speculation sales tax hike may be delayed
Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Friday there was no change in the government’s stance that it would go ahead with a planned sales tax hike in October, barring a big economic shock on the scale of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Aso made the comment a day after a close aide of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told an Internet TV program that the planned tax increase may be postponed depending on the results of the central bank’s next tankan business survey due in July. The remarks by Koichi Hagiuda, acting secretary-general of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), fueled speculation that the prime minister ... (full story)