Land of Rising Debt: Falling Tax Revenue Forces Japan to Sell More Bonds

Money Morning ^ | 10/21/09 | Bob Blandeburgo

[TigerLikesRooster]

Land of Rising Debt: Falling Tax Revenue Forces Japan to Sell More Bonds

By Bob Blandeburgo

Associate Editor

Money Morning

Japan’s government will have to sell more bonds – and grow the country’s record debt – in the face of declining tax receipts.

The central government’s tax revenue may fall below $442 billion (40 trillion yen) considerably less than the $439 billion (46 trillion yen) forecast a year ago, Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii told The Wall Street Journal.

“This is due to the global recession that began last year, and we will deal with this through the additional issuance of government securities,” Fujii said, suggesting in a report published in The New York Times that bond issuance for the current fiscal year could be 50 trillion yen – roughly $550 billion – or higher.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[Paladin2]

"$442 billion (40 trillion yen) considerably less than the $439 billion (46 trillion yen)"

Foreign exchange rate problems with the math?

[ASOC]

Big Government bureaucrats must eat the same breakfast world wide.

Less taxes?

Don't cut spending, raise taxes!

Like that ever fixed anything.

[wiggen]

Here we are in the same situation.

[allmost]

“This is due to the global recession that began last year, and we will deal with this through the additional issuance of government securities,” Fujii said

They 've been issuing debt for a generation now. Their export driven economy has allowed them to continue with no real success. A good textbook example of why our own (US) policies cannot work with a service driven, import oriented base. This is not recent policy for Japan.

[seowulf]

Aren’t these the guys who are supposed to be buying our bonds?

Who’s buying theirs?

[tbw2]

And exporting services fails when demand for services falls with economic slow downs and India can do it remotely more cheaply, too.