Japan to boost stimulus to US$1.1 trillion as virus threatens deeper recession

A couple wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the new coronavirus walking past a quiet Komachi shopping street in Kamakura, south of Tokyo, on Monday (April 20). Japan on MOnday boosted its new economic stimulus package on Monday to a record US$1.1 trillion to expand cash payouts to its citizens. - AP

TOKYO: Japan boosted its new economic stimulus package on Monday to a record US$1.1 trillion to expand cash payouts to its citizens, as the fallout from the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic threatens to push the world's third-largest economy deeper into recession.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe formally decided the new stimulus less than two weeks after his cabinet approved an earlier plan to spend 108.2 trillion yen (US$1.1 trillion), which had detailed payouts of 300,000 yen to households with sharp drops in income.