Japan's Abe says to raise sales tax as planned next April

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday that he had decided to raise the sales tax as planned from April 1 next year to 8 percent from the current 5 percent to sustain the country's public finances. Speaking at a meeting of government and ruling party officials, Abe said he judged that the economic package compiled by his government would cushion the impact of any sales tax hike, which he said was necessary to maintain confidence in Japan's public finances. (Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)