Japan’s Abe targets income gains in growth strategy

TOKYO: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to raise incomes by 3% annually and set up special economic zones to attract foreign businesses in the third tranche of measures aimed at boosting growth in the world’s third-biggest economy.

Rising incomes are vital to the success of Abe’s ambitious goals to end entrenched deflation and decades of economic stagnation during which China sped past Japan in the world’s economic rankings.