Assured Trading: Investors gave a lukewarm response to the $13.5 trillion-yen fiscal stimulus plan announced by Shinzo Abe’s government, its latest effort to revive the Japanese economy’s flagging fortunes.
The overall value of the package amounted to 28 trillion yen but deeper analysis showed that only $6.2 trillion yen will be new government spending, the rest being comprised of government-backed loans and other measures.
The eagerly-anticipated announcement was greeted with indifference and, as if to crystallize the market’s disappointment, the Japanese yen strengthened as investors bet the package would have little impact on the country’s sluggish growth.
“The stimulus gun has been fired again but, this time, with government money rather than the monetary stimulus we’ve become so accustomed to from the Bank of Japan,” said Boyd Capote, a senior strategist at Japan-based broker dealer, Assured Trading.
“We believe that markets had been hanging on to hopes that the much-vaunted “Helicopter money” would be forthcoming but it never materialized,” he added.
Assured Trading said it had hoped that the Prime Minister would use the political capital he earned after a strong showing in recent elections in the upper house of the Japanese parliament to unveil helicopter money but Shinzo Abe evidently believes that the time for such radical policy has not yet arrived.
The fiscal part of the stimulus package will be aimed at upgrading ports that can accommodate foreign cruise vessels and the construction of food-processing facilities to boost farm produce exports as well as other infrastructure projects but Assured Trading says it believes the Abe government will eventually resort to the helicopter money option.

About Assured Trading:
Assured Trading's reputation has been built on a robust history of providing investors with a high caliber of expertise and professional support they need to make comprehensive and farsighted decisions relating to their financial wellbeing now and in the future.

We specialize in assisting clients who, having spent much of their time accumulating wealth, now want their money to work for them in the most advantageous way possible.