Japan must promote wage, investment growth, says PM Kishida

By Leika Kihara

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday the government must continue to promote growth in wages and investment for the economy to make a full exit from deflation.

Kishida said one of his administration's achievements had been to lay the groundwork for pulling Japan fully out of deflation.

"In order to fully emerge from a deflation-prone economy, we must accelerate wage and investment growth, and ensure we achieve our goal to expand Japan's gross domestic product to 600 trillion yen ($4.10 trillion)," Kishida told a news conference.

Kishida made the remark at a news conference where he said he would step down as ruling party leader and not run in the party's leadership race expected in September.

($1 = 146.4200 yen)

(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Tom Hogue and Muralikumar Anantharaman)