Abe calls for early polls

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for an early election and suspended a sales- tax increase as he looks to extend his mandate and bolster an economy in recession.

Abe will dissolve the lower house of parliament on November 21, he said in Tokyo, after announcing an 18- month delay in implementing the planned tax increase to 10 per cent from eight per cent, he said at a press conference in Tokyo. Abe ordered his ministers to start preparing a new stimulus. Bloomberg package.

After data yesterday showed the economy contracted an annualized 1.6 percent in the third quarter. The recession didn't mean his economic plan of monetary easing, stimulus spending and structural reform, known as Abenomics, was a failure, he said.