62 percent of Japanese distrust ‘Abenomics’

Tokyo, June 14 (IANS) At least 62 per cent of Japanese public showed their doubt about the effectiveness of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic policy mix dubbed "Abenomics", said the latest nationwide poll released on Monday.

The survey said 62.2 percent of the respondents do not believe that the "Abenomics" could improve the country’s sluggish economy, while 28 percent of Japanese supported the policy compound, Xinhua reported.

Abe earlier this month postponed again the planned sales tax hike from current eight per cent to 10 percent, citing that global economic situation right now is similar to what in 2008 before the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers and weak domestic consumption figures.

Also on Monday, rating agency Fitch has slashed its rating outlook on Japanese government bond from "stable" to "negative" for Abe’s decision to delay the consumption tax hike by another 18 months.

The revision "primarily reflects Fitch’s decreased confidence in the Japanese authorities’ commitment to fiscal consolidation", the agency said in a statement.

Abe aimed at making economic policies a topic during the upcoming upper house election. The election outcome is significant for the revisionist prime minister and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party to launch a motion to revise the country’s war-renouncing constitution.