Japan passes trillion-dollar budget amid debt worries

Japan on Friday approved a record trillion-dollar budget, seeking to aid an economic recovery but also fuelling concerns about its swelling national debts.

Japan on Friday approved a record trillion-dollar budget, seeking to aid an economic recovery but also fuelling concerns about its swelling national debts.

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The cabinet outlined spending measures of 92.3 trillion yen ($1 trillion, Rs 46.8 lakh crore) for the next financial year beginning April 2010, focussing on improving social welfare and cutting public works spending.

The budget aims “to protect livelihoods with a philosophy shifting from concrete to people,” Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said.

His government has predicted that Asia’s biggest economy would grow 1.4 per cent next year — the first expansion in three years.

Japan has huge debts as a legacy of massive stimulus spending during the economic "lost decade" of the 1990s.