TOKYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's official announcement on Monday of a snap lower-house election in October came as no surprise to investors in Tokyo. But economists and business leaders expressed concern that the government will blow a hole in the budget with higher spending.
Following Abe's announcement on Monday evening, Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, or Keizai Doyukai, called the prime minister's decision to push back his initial target for achieving a primary budget surplus by fiscal 2020 "extremely regrettable."
