No change to plan of raising sales tax: Japan PM Abe

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday there is no change to his plan of proceeding with a scheduled sales tax hike next year unless a crisis of the scale of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, or a huge earthquake, hits the economy.

But he said Japan's private consumption has been weaker than expected since it was hit by the first sales tax hike in 2014.

"There are downside risks to the global economy," Abe said in a parliament debate with opposition party leaders. "I'm focusing on whether such risks materialise beyond what can be considered as due to cyclical factors," he said.