Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the nation’s longest serving premier, is set to resign due to his worsening health, a source close to a ruling party official said on Friday, sparking a slide in Tokyo stock prices and a rise in the yen. “The resignation is a done deal,” said the source close to a senior official in Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party. The conservative Abe returned as prime minister for a rare second term in December 2012, pledging to revive growth with his “Abenomics” mix of hyper-easy monetary policy, fiscal spending and reforms. Abe kept his promises to strengthen Japan’s defences, boosting spending on the military after years of declines and expanding its capacity to project power abroad. Abe resigned from his first stint as prime minister in 2007, citing ill-health after a year plagued by scandals in his cabinet and a huge election loss for his ruling party.

Source: The Star August 28, 2020 05:48 UTC