Japan and Shinzo Abe

election victory: In Japan the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, ordered a new round of fiscal stimulus spending after an election victory, according to The Guardian. His meeting on Tuesday with the former US Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke, a proponent of helicopter money policies – printing money and directly handing it to the private sector to stimulate the economy – fuelled speculation Abe stimulus could be funded by the Bank of Japan easing. A rebound in equity markets led investors to reduce their holdings of safe-haven assets like Japan yen, which had surged in the aftermath of Britain shock vote to leave the European Union. Such expectations pushed down the yen 4% over the last two days. MSCI broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan had risen by 0.4% to 427.83 at one point, just below its year-to-date high of 428.22 hit on April 21. Abe has told his economy minister to compile an economic stimulus package by the end of this month to revive a flagging economy. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.