TOKYO: Japan's government is finalising an economic package of pump-priming measures worth some 10 trillion yen (US$91.4 billion) to ease the pain of higher fuel and food prices, a report said Friday.

The pillar of the package will be eight trillion yen worth of measures to ensure adequate financing for small businesses through credit guarantees from the government, the Nikkei economic daily reported.

Other measures the government plans include discounts in expressway tolls, tax cuts for people with mortgages, and expanded loans to single-parent households, the newspaper said without naming its sources.

Although loan facilities will account for most of the stimulus package, actual government spending will exceed one trillion yen, it said. The plan is expected to be announced later Friday.

The government has faced calls from some lawmakers within the ruling coalition for a bigger injection of public money to boost Asia's largest economy, which contracted in the second quarter, moving closer to recession.

But ministers have also stressed the need to rebuild the country's debt-ridden finances.

Japan's public debt is the highest among industrialised nations after the government spent trillions of yen on emergency spending packages in the 1990s to try to revive the recession-ravaged economy.

- AFP/yb