Japan PM Shinzo Abe warns of Lehman-magnitude crisis

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned his Group of Seven counterparts of a crisis on the scale of Lehman Brothers, Nikkei reported, offering a potential justification to again delay an increase in the national sales tax.

Abe presented data at a Thursday session of the G7 summit he is hosting, showing that commodities prices have fallen 55 percent suince 2014, the same margin they fell during the global financial crisis, the newspaper said, interpreting this as "warning of the re-emergence of a Lehman-scale crisis".

Abe has pledged to raise Japan's sales tax to 10 percent from 8 percent in April next year as planned, unless there is a financial crisis on the scale of the Lehman collapse or a major natural disaster.