IMF unfazed on Japan debt

Washington -The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday voiced confidence that Japan would manage its whopping fiscal deficit, despite concerns in much of the world about public debt.

"I don't see any kind of immediate risk for Japanese public finance," Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the international lender's managing director, said in a group interview.

Strauss-Kahn contrasted the Asian economic power's high stability with other nations such as Spain, which is undertaking austerity measures to plug a revenue shortfall.

"The situation of Japan has always been different from the rest of the world," he said.

Japan, whose growth rates have barely budged since its speculative "bubble economy" imploded in the early 1990s, is saddled with a fiscal deficit of 227% of GDP, the highest level among the Group of 20 major economies.

A G20 summit this weekend in Canada set a goal of halving national deficits by 2013 but gave an exception to Japan, noting that its burden was financed domestically.

Japan's new prime minister, Naoto Kan, has pledged an ambitious plan to tackle the deficit including through major changes in taxation.

 - AFP