March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s public debt is likely to surge to 197.3 percent of gross domestic product next year, limiting the government’s ability to spend more to revive growth, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.
“With the debt ratio projected to approach 200 percent in 2010, the scope for additional fiscal stimulus is limited,” the Paris-based organization said in a report today. “It will be important to focus again on fiscal consolidation as the economy stabilizes.”
Prime Minister Taro Aso said today that he aims to compile a new stimulus package by mid-April to help households hurt by a recession that’s likely to be Japan’s worst since World War II. The deepening global slump has spurred unprecedented drops in exports and industrial output and pushed unemployment to a three-year high.
