Japan's Cabinet approved billions of dollars of stimulus spending in a supplementary budget meant to perk up a faltering economic recovery and cushion the impact of a sales tax hike next April, AP reported. The 5.5 trillion yen ($53 billion) in fresh stimulus approved Thursday is aimed at creating at least 250,000 jobs and is heavily weighted toward construction projects. It also includes 600 billion yen ($5.8 billion) in payments to home buyers and one-time payments of 10,000 yen ($100) per child to low and middle-income families. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised the extra stimulus to counter a 3 percentage point increase in sales tax to 8 percent in April.
