Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s cabinet on June 3 approved a 3.1 trillion yen (S$24.8 billion) supplementary budget for this fiscal year to cushion the impact of rising energy costs on households amid the risk of a prolonged Middle East crisis. The extra budget will be funded entirely through deficit-financing bonds, with the government seeking to avoid increasing overall bond issuance to the market by offsetting it with stronger tax revenues and non-tax income. The additional spending will primarily replenish contingency reserves used to subsidise gasoline costs and utility bills as tensions in the Middle East continue. [...]