TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Friday his government will set up an expert panel to discuss ways to promote salary hikes by small and midsize companies to "achieve salary hikes that outpace rising prices."

Ishiba, who spoke of the plan at the first meeting of the economic and fiscal policy council since he took office, has already expressed an aim to raise the country's average minimum hourly wage to 1,500 yen ($9.90) by the end of the 2020s.

Ishiba's ambitious minimum wage target has raised concerns among business owners. His predecessor, Fumio Kishida, vowed to achieve that target by the mid-2030s.

Japan's average minimum hourly wage for fiscal 2024 was lifted to 1,055 yen, effective from October, marking a gain of a record 51 yen, or 5.1 percent, from the previous year.

At the council meeting, the government presented a revised economic outlook, lowering its growth forecast for the current fiscal year through March to 0.7 percent from 0.9 percent estimated in July, citing a lingering negative impact of a safety data-rigging scandal in the auto sector.

In its latest projection, consumer prices -- a key gauge of inflation -- are expected to rise 2.6 percent in fiscal 2024, down from an earlier forecast of 2.8 percent but still well above the Bank of Japan's 2 percent target, partly due to a slowdown in import price increases caused by the yen's depreciation.