{"id":432330,"date":"2026-02-18T13:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432330\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T13:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:30:08","slug":"imf-urges-japan-to-avoid-cutting-sales-tax-amid-higher-expected-borrowing-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432330\/","title":{"rendered":"IMF urges Japan to avoid cutting sales tax amid higher expected borrowing costs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned Japan against cutting sales tax when borrowing costs on public debt are set to double, comments that come as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi prepares to speed up debate on a potential suspension of the sales tax on food.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe authorities should avoid reducing the consumption tax, an untargeted measure that would erode fiscal space and add to fiscal risks,\u201d the IMF said Wednesday in its latest concluding statement after an Article IV consultation on Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Japan shouldn\u2019t be loosening its fiscal policy when debt servicing and welfare costs are likely to keep increasing and eventually adding to the nation\u2019s elevated debt level, the IMF\u2019s mission chief for Japan, Rahul Anand, told reporters on Tuesday after the release of the statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned Japan against cutting sales tax when borrowing costs on public debt&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[456,84,460,1294,19871,1431,13208,1892,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-432330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-bonds","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-debt","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-imf","13":"tag-inflation","14":"tag-japanese-economy","15":"tag-taxes","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}