Abe Says He's Not Planning to Call Snap Poll or Delay Tax Hike
- Says he'll raise the sale levy tax unless there's a big shock
- Japan's economy contracted in final three months of 2015
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Saturday that he’s not considering a snap general election this summer to coincide with a scheduled upper house poll, and that he has no intention of delaying a planned increase in the nation’s consumption tax.
Speaking in an interview on Nippon Hoso radio, Abe said he would raise the levy to 10 percent in April 2017 unless there was a big economic shock on the scale of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, or a major earthquake. "At this point, it’s not at a Lehman-shock level, but it is necessary to keep carefully monitoring the economy."