Following reports yesterday that Japanese.....>

JAPAN: Following reports yesterday that Japanese PM Shinzo Abe could push back

the target of hitting a primary surplus from the current date of 2021, with

media reports indicating he could suggest hitting a surplus in the early to mid

2020's. The reports posit that if Abe was to win the snap election he would go

ahead with the sales tax hike in October 2019 to boost fiscal revenue.

- S&PGR Chief Asia-Pac Economist Paul Gruenwald, speaking as an economist not

representing S&PGR, says that growth and inflation targets should be considered

before attempting fiscal consolidation.

- In a Bloomberg article Gruenwald notes that "If the fiscal policy is

contractionary and the monetary policy is expansionary, one is that they are not

working together; two, you are confusing the market"