Tokyo, Nov. 10 (Jiji Press)–The outstanding balance of Japanese government debt came to 1,323,363.2 billion yen at the end of September, down by 23,320.1 billion yen from the end of June, the Ministry of Finance said Tuesday. The debt balance decreased for the first time in two years as the government used yen funds obtained through large-scale yen-buying, dollar-selling interventions to redeem financing bills. In their market interventions in April-May and July-August, the government and the Bank of Japan bought a total of more than 27 trillion yen to curb the Japanese currency’s depreciation. With Japan’s estimated population of 122.69 million as of Oct. 1, the debt per person was about 10.79 million yen. Of the total debt, general government bonds increased by 4,252 billion yen to a record high of 1,115,135.9 billion yen. Financing bills fell by 25,500 billion yen to 68,899.4 billion yen. Borrowings dropped by 921.9 billion yen to 39,615.5 billion yen. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
