Report in the Nikkei press:

  • GDP growth in the April-June period is likely get a significant upgrade from the Cabinet Office’s preliminary estimates released last month
  • August estimates from the Cabinet Office put annualized GDP growth at 2.6% y/y for the three months ended June
  • But projections from economists now say that the real growth figure would be upgraded to around 3.8%
  • This should give a boost to those arguing for a sales tax hike to proceed as planned

The current plan is that the 5% sales tax would be hiked to 8% in April 2014 and to 10% in October 2015