Japan Prime Minister Abe dissolves parliament, sets stage for election due to Japan being body slammed back into recession

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday dissolved the lower house of parliament, setting the stage for snap elections middle of next month.

The move comes on the back of fresh data that showed the world’s third-biggest economy slipping into recession in the third quarter, after a controversial sales tax hike that took effect in April battered consumption.

Abe this week postponed a second sales tax hike, initially scheduled for October 2015, by 18 months. The original plan was to raise consumption tax to 10 percent next year, after it was increased to 8 percent from 5 percent this year .... http://www.cnbc.com