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Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will embark on a three-day official tour to Japan from Monday.
He will be accompanied by Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram and Chief Economic Advisor to the Finance Ministry Raghuram Rajan, it is learnt.
Chidambaram, who has just returned from Durban after attending the BRICS Summit, is expected to meet his counterpart in Tokyo during his visit there.
He will also meet institutional investors from Japan and invite more Japanese investments into India.
Foreign resources
India is betting big on foreign resources to finance the widening current-account-deficit, which is likely to be around 5 per cent of GDP this fiscal.
Japan has been a key partner of India in the latter’s efforts to boost infrastructure development here.
Chidambaram and Finance Ministry officials will visit Tokyo at a time when Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeks to reflate the world’s third largest economy.
Monetary stimulus
Japan’s central bank — Bank of Japan — is poised to step up monetary stimulus next week.
The new Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda is looking to end deflation and has already raised market expectations there for further monetary easing.
Kuroda is widely expected to unleash stimulus at his first policy setting meeting slated for April 3-4.
The new central bank chief has already told lawmakers in Japan that he would push for more easing until the price target (2 per cent) is achieved.
Japanese currency yen’s fall has drawn criticism from trading rivals (like South Korean car makers) who contend that the currency is becoming a weapon for Japanese competitiveness.
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