Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has dissolved parliament’s lower house, paving the way for an early election that will test public support for his ailing economic policies..

Abe called the election, to be held on 14 December, days after data showed Japan had slipped back into recession.

The prime minister, who took office two years ago promising to revive Japan’s economic fortunes, is treating the election as a mid-term referendum on “Abenomics” – his attempt to stave off deflation and lift the country out of two “lost decades” of stagnation.

His three-pronged strategy of cheap credit, public investment and structural reforms is under scrutiny after GDP shrank at an annualised 1.6% in the three months to September – the second consecutive quarter of contraction.

The figures surprised many economists, who had predicted that the world’s third biggest economy would bounce back.

On Tuesday, Abe resisted pressure to address Japan’s huge public debt – now more than twice the size of its economy – by delaying an increase in the sales tax that was due next October.

A rise in the same tax from 5% to 8% in April has been blamed for weak consumer spending and Japan’s slide back into recession.

Abe said the next increase, to 10%, would not come into effect until April 2017.

The snap election is also being seen as an attempt by Japan’s conservative leader to claim public support for two deeply divisive policies that are expected to dominate the political agenda in the first half of next year.

Abe is in favour of restarting nuclear reactors , even though a majority of voters opposes the move amid continuing safety concerns almost four years after the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daichi power plant.

Many voters are also wary of his plans to lift Japan’s postwar ban on its troops fighting alongside allies overseas, fearing that they could be dragged into a disastrous US-led conflict.

The governing Liberal Democratic party (LDP) and its junior coalition are expected to win the election, although they could shed several seats and lose their two-thirds majority in the lower house.

Abe’s personal approval ratings have dipped in recent weeks following the resignation of two cabinet ministers over funding and election campaign scandals.

A poll published on Friday in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper showed support for Abe at 39%, the lowest since he became prime minister in December 2012.

Support for the biggest opposition party, the Democratic party of Japan (DPJ), stood at just 13%.

“Unfortunately, [we have] not recovered to a point where we can say to voters, ‘Entrust the government to us’,” the DPJ’s secretary general, Yukio Edano, told reporters.

Edano’s party lost heavily to Abe’s LDP in 2012, after three tumultuous years in office.