TOKYO - JAPAN'S government said on Wednesday it remained committed to rebuilding the debt-ridden public finances and played down suggestions that it could announce a big spending package to support jobs.
'We have to maintain fiscal discipline,' the top government spokesman, Takeo Kawamura, told reporters.
Some senior ruling party lawmakers reportedly want Prime Minister Taro Aso to put aside efforts to reduce the national debt and to boost government spending to boost the recession-hit economy.
Local news reports said the government was considering a plan to spend 10 trillion yen (S$165.1 billion) over the next three years to support the labour market during the economic downturn.
Mr Kawamura, however, denied the government was discussing such a plan, saying it would be 'difficult to carry out in reality.'
But he said additional policy measures on employment were possible and the government would need to be flexible to deal with the economic downturn.
Japan's economy slipped deeper into recession in October with factory output and consumer spending tumbling.
In October, Mr Aso's government unveiled a second economic stimulus plan worth 26.9 trillion yen, including fresh spending of five trillion yen, to stimulate Asia's largest economy.
Japan's public debt is already the highest among industrialised nations after a series of emergency spending packages in the 1990s. -- AFP
