Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet on Friday approved a stimulus package worth 20 trillion yen (225 billion dollars) to pull the world's third-largest economy out of recession, dpa reported here today. The package, which includes large-scale public works projects and measures to stimulate investment, was expected to boost economic growth by 2 percentage points and create about 600,000 jobs, the premier said. The government, the most highly indebted in the world, was likely to issue an additional 5 trillion yen in bonds for the current financial year, which ends March 31, to fund the package. Japan is in recession as it struggles with a stronger yen, falling exports, the eurozone debt crisis and growing tensions with China, the nation's largest trading partner. Its economy shrank at an annualized pace of 3.5 per cent in the July-to-September quarter and 0.1 per cent in the April-to-June quarter. The government also said Friday that the country logged its second-largest account deficit in November due to slower shipments. The deficit stood at 222.4 billion yen, the second worst under comparable data available since 1985 after the 455.6 billion yen posted in January 2012, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.
