VENTURE CAPITAL POST

It seems like Japanese retailers are saying not to believe in official statistics on consumer spending as stores cut earnings forecasts and expects a lackluster consumer spending, which is an important factor in the growth of Japan during a time of declining exports and factory output.

The debt-ridden Island Puerto Rico has opted for value-added tax (VAT) as a measure to enhance revenues for the government. The new VAT structure will come into force starting1 April 2016.

Japan's consumer inflation was expected to edge up slightly in March as oil prices stabilized and consumer goods prices stayed steady, calling the Bank of Japan's bullish forecasts into question.

Bank of Japan policymakers meet next week for that most delicate of monetary missions - raising inflationary expectations without scaring households into cutting back consumption.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will postpone a planned tax increase and call a general election for December, a newspaper said on Wednesday, in what would be the biggest shift in Abe's economic policies since he came to power two years ago.

The purportedly massive USD53 billion economic stimulus package by the government of Japan was to aid the country from its high tax rates imposed in April this year, said government ministers.

Japan was said to be studying the possibility of giving a USD 50 billion economic stimulus package to cushion the possible drag of its planned tax hike, sources told Reuters.

The Japanese government got the approval of a special panel to raise the national sales tax by 2014.

U.S. tax regulators are preparing for a potential tax hike on profits earned by private equity managers .