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UPDATE 2-Japan's Fujii: cut in new JGB issuance an option

Published 09/18/2009, 12:50 AM

(For more stories on the Japanese economy, click)

* To secure several trillion yen by cutting wasteful spending

* To reallocate money to support people's livelihoods

* Ministers to report findings on wasteful spending by Oct 2

* To tell G20 Japan reallocating spending, not freezing

* Questions need for moratorium on some loan repayments (Adds comments in paragraph 8, 12-14)

By Tetsushi Kajimoto

TOKYO, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said a cut in issuance of new Japanese government bonds for the current fiscal year could be an option when reviewing the extra budget that was compiled by the previous government.

"It is one of the three options," Fujii told a news conference when asked about a possible cut in planned new JGB issuance for the year to next March, which totals a record 44 trillion yen ($483 billion).

Fujii did not specify the amount of a possible cut. He was appointed in a new government that took office on Wednesday.

The previous government compiled an extra budget of about $150 billion to help fund stimulus aimed at helping pull the Japanese economy out of its longest slump since World War Two.

Fujii said the extra budget includes wasteful spending such as building and repair costs for government offices and funds for government-affiliated corporations, and he aimed to secure several trillion yen by cutting such spending.

Other options would be to reallocate the secured funds to support people's livelihoods either in the current fiscal year or in the year that starts next April 1.

"This is not a cut but a reallocating on condition that it be used for things that will help people's livelihoods and the economy effectively," he said.

Asked how the new government will explain its review of spending at the Group of 20 leaders' summit in Pittsburgh this month, Fujii said Tokyo would say it is not freezing but reallocating its spending.

Fujii reiterated it was too early to say if the new government should compile another extra budget for the current year to support the economy, which he said is largely rebounding from its sharp fall earlier this year thanks to stimulus steps.

He said he will be uncertain how the economy will fare until later in the autumn.

Each member of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's cabinet has been asked to examine wasteful spending in the extra budget by Oct. 2 and report their findings to the finance and other key ministers, Fujii said.

Fujii questioned comments by Shizuka Kamei, the new minister for banking and market regulation, who said he would like to introduce a moratorium on some loan repayments to help struggling small and midsized businesses and individuals.

"I haven't formally heard about it at all, but if that turns out to be the case, it will of course be a big problem for the government as a whole," Fujii said, adding that the ruling coalition has only agreed to draw up a bill to prevent a credit crunch.

"Surely Japan took such steps at the time of its financial panic in 1927, but I wonder if we are in such a situation now." (Editing by Chris Gallagher)

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