Reuters reports that Japan's government pledged to keep its goal of achieving a primary budget surplus by fiscal 2025, with a caveat that the target will be reassessed this fiscal year due to COVID-19 pandemic.

The annual economic policy blueprint underscored the need to strike a delicate balance between spurring post-pandemic growth and curbing the industrial world's heaviest public debt burden. There was no change in the blueprint to its wording on the fiscal target from an earlier draft.

"However, we will reassess the timeframe by the end of the current fiscal year, while considering the still unstable economic and fiscal situation due to the pandemic's impact," read the blueprint, which was approved by the cabinet on Friday.