Online Meeting with Foreign Media From Abenomics to Suganomics Robin Harding, The Financial Times

October 09, 2020

Microsoft Teams

Mr. Robin Harding, Tokyo Bureau Chief of The Financial Times, shared his views with KKC member companies on the topic, “From Abenomics to Suganomics”. He stated that although Abenomics was clearly effective and proved that monetary policy works, it was not successful in delivering a 2% inflation nor achieving a large increase in growth. In his view, this was largely due to the two consumption tax rises in 2014 and 2019. He also pointed out that inflation is important because it allows positive interest rates and the Bank of Japan would be able to cut interest rates to respond to shocks like COVID-19, rather than having to rely on government spending. In regards to Suganomics, he stated that continuing the policies of Prime Minister Abe is not a full answer to Prime Minister Suga’s economic vision. A total of 40 people attended the meeting online.