Japan Bond Sales to Exceed $314 Billion Next Year, Nikkei Says

By Toru Fujioka

Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese government bond sales will probably exceed 30 trillion yen ($314 billion) for a second straight year in the 12 months starting April 2009 as corporate tax revenue declines, Nikkei English News reported.

Japan’s tax receipts may fall short of the government’s estimate by about 6 trillion yen ($63 billion), the Asahi newspaper reported earlier this month.

Falling tax revenue and an increase in spending to stimulate growth will make it difficult to achieve the goal of balancing the budget by 2011, though it remains a “necessary first step” toward cutting Japan’s debt, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said last week.

Japan’s public debt at central and local governments will reach 778 trillion yen by March 2009, according to the finance ministry. The OECD estimates the debt stands at more than 1.7 times the economy’s gross domestic product, the highest ratio among the group’s 30 member countries.

To contact the reporter on this story: Toru Fujioka in Tokyo at tfujioka1@bloomberg.net