Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has ordered more than 10 trillion yen ($99 billion) to stimulate the world's second-largest economy from its deepest recession since World War II.

The package amounts to more than 2 percent of Japan's gross domestic product,” said Kaoru Yosano, the Finance Minister on Monday after meeting with Aso.

The new stimulus package comes on top of 12 trillion yen in fiscal steps already approved by lawmakers in the past few months.

These are the instructions I have received, so I would like to work toward this goal, Yosano said.

Japan has been hit particularly hard by the global slowdown, the country's unemployment rate rose to 4.4% in February. There will be more job cuts in the months ahead, according to analysts forecast.

Japan's GDP shrank by an alarming 12.1% annual rate in the October-December period and almost certainly contracted further in the first quarter this year.

Lawmakers last month passed a record 88.5 trillion yen budget for 2009 fiscal year which will start April 1.

Japan