

The government is planning a de facto downward revision of its target nominal growth rate of 2 percent for fiscal 2006 by changing its calculation method, a move designed to allow it to maintain its stated forecast....continued deflationary pressures have forced the government to concede that the target expansion in the gross domestic product would be difficult to achieve. However, the target will remain unchanged through changes in its calculations out of concern for policy pledges made by the government and the Liberal Democratic Party to overcome deflation-induced economic sluggishness.