Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has once again postponed the country's consumption tax hike.

Japan was originally scheduled to increase the tax from 8 percent to 10 percent in October 2015, but it was postponed until April 2017, with the promise of no more delay. But on June 1, Abe ate his words by putting the hike off again to October 2019.

Abe highlighted economic weakness in China and a slowdown in emerging markets as his reason for the second postponement, asserting that "Abenomics is steadily producing positive results".