(Bloomberg) — Japan has put together a record budget for next fiscal year, with Covid-related spending and higher social security costs contributing to a further increase in the country’s massive debt pile, according to the Nikkei newspaper.
Spending by the Japanese government will increase to 107.6 trillion yen ($943 billion) in the year starting April, the Nikkei report said. New bond issuance to finance the budget will amount to 36.9 trillion yen. Tax income is expected to rise to a record 65.2 trillion yen.
The official announcement of the figures is expected later in the week.
The annual budget will fund some of the spending for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s recent stimulus package of more than $690 billion.
Read More: Japan’s Kishida Looks to Make a Splash With Record Stimulus
As the world moves toward its third year of the pandemic, Japan remains solidly in spending mode, with those calling for continued support still outnumbering those demanding immediate fiscal discipline.
Despite the spread of the omicron variant in the U.S. and Europe, Japan has so far managed to avoid a major outbreak. While 73% of new cases reported in the U.S. were identified as omicron last week, Japan has registered less than 70 omicron cases as of last weekend.
(Updates with further details on recent stimulus plan, omicron spread. An earlier version of this story was corrected to fix a currency conversion.)
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