Sputtering economy creates uncertainty over Abe's tax hike plan

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has reaffirmed his plan to raise the consumption tax in October, but there is increasing speculation that he could be forced to postpone the hike to safeguard growth in the sputtering economy.Abe told parliament Friday that he would raise the tax as scheduled "unless there is an event on a scale similar to the Lehman shock," a reference to the 2008 global financial crisis.The government, meanwhile, stressed that the world's third-largest economy is "recovering," defying market expectations that it would stop using the word in its latest monthly report amid…READ FULL ARTICLE