TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision to step down on Friday because of worsening health will formally put an end to his"Abenomics" strategy, which tried to revive the world's third-largest economy after decades of stagnation.Reuters surveyed 18 experts to gauge their perceptions of Abe on five areas: ending deflation; fiscal reform; labour-market reform; encouraging business and investment; and deregulation.
"This policy, which has continued in various forms for decades, ensures that domestic consumption will remain stagnant.""The flaw in Abenomics was the reflationary policy shift at the BOJ, for which PM Abe gets full marks, would establish the necessary conditions for the Abe administration to push ahead with the plan to double the consumption tax rate... The problem was that this fiscal tightening was inimical to the reflation objective.
"If you look at the numbers... you see that 50per cent of Japanese shares traded at the TSE are now held by foreigners and institutional investors. Moreover, in the period of 2017-2019, Japan has attracted more private equity investments than any other country, and Japan's M&A activities are second after the U.S.""Japan as a market remains unattractive for obvious demographic reasons, including the oft-cited labour rigidities.