Prime minister Shinzo Abe has in the past few months pledged to increase social spending, including essential healthcare and pre-school education.

The new target will be the basis for a new fiscal reform plan, which is expected to be drawn up this summer.

According to the latest forecasts, the government expects to achieve a primary budget surplus of 800bn yen ($7.23bn) in the fiscal year 2027.

Originally the government was aiming to achieve the surplus in 2020, but Abe made spending on education and welfare a priority of its campaign during the October elections and omitted the deadline.

Abe pushed back the primary budget-balancing target and promised to compile an extra spending plan worth around 2trn yen for human capital investments by the end of the year.

Last month the government was reportedly putting together an extra budget worth around 2.7trn yen ($24bn) for the fiscal year ending in March.

The country experienced the longest period of uninterrupted growth in more than a decade in the third quarter of this year, with a 1.4% annualised rate between July and September.