AFP

Japan’s public debt is expected to swell to a record $13.5 trillion as the government finances reconstruction efforts after the March earthquake and tsunami.
Japan’s debt is already the industrialised world’s biggest at around twice its GDP, after years of pump-priming measures by governments trying in vain to arrest a long economic decline.
The public debt is expected to reach 1 quadrillion yen ($13.5 trillion) by the end of this fiscal year to March, up 99.75 trillion yen from a year earlier.
The national debt will inflate as Tokyo plans to issue bonds worth 11.55 trillion yen to finance the reconstruction measures in the disaster-hit northeast, the Yomiuri and NHK public broadcaster said.
The government spending for the year to March is also expected to swell to a record 106.40 trillion as the series of extra budgets will exacerbate the nation’s already tricky fiscal condition.