Japan: Fiscal Tightening Ahead

Koji Omi, Japan's finance minister, claimed yesterday that the gross domestic product deflator - an important measure of deflation - would turn positive in the year to March 2008 for the first time in a decade:“The GDP deflator for the current fiscal year was minus 0.4 per cent, and that will become plus 0.2 per cent in fiscal 2007/08,” he said. “That shows the economy will become normal.”Not