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Japan will cut bond issuance for FY2019 budget by $4.7 bln -sources

FILE PHOTO: A man wearing a protective mask walks past the headquarters of Bank of Japan amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Tokyo

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will issue 500 billion yen ($4.7 billion) less in bonds than it had planned for last fiscal year and instead tap reserves to fill tax revenue shortfalls caused by the coronavirus, several government sources said on Thursday.

As the pandemic hit corporate profits, the government has revised down tax revenues for the fiscal year that ended in March to 58.4 trillion yen, from the 60.2 trillion yen estimated in December.

The government will tap reserves and non-tax revenues to fill the shortfall to prevent total budget revenues from falling short of expenditures, the sources said on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak publicly.

($1 = 107.4300 yen)

(Reporting by Takaya Yamaguchi, writing by Leika Kihara; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)