Japan Consumption Tax rise delay till 2019

Close advisors to premier Shinzo Abe indicated this weekend that the planed April 2017 rise in Japanese Consumption Tax from 8% to 10% will be postponed until 2019.

Continuing weak consumer demand, and a slowing Chinese market, had put the rise in doubt for a year. It was part of a two-part planned rise, the first, from 5% to 8% in October 2014, had led to a sharp contraction in the world’s third largest economy.

Any formal confirmation will come mid this week, and will include further structural reforms and a new budget to rekindle to economy.

The rise in Consumption Tax has been long planned, and is principally required to meet the long-term social costs of a rapidly ageing population.