[Economic Outlook] Will the COVID-19 Supplementary Budget Pass the National Assembly... Interest in Whether It Will Be Increased

Deputy Prime Minister for Economy Hong Nam-ki attended the full meeting of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee on the 10th, providing a proposal explanation related to the COVID-19 supplementary budget. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] This week, the main focus is expected to be on whether the supplementary budget bill to overcome the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) will pass the National Assembly and whether the Bank of Korea will lower the base interest rate.

The COVID-19 supplementary budget bill is expected to pass the plenary session of the National Assembly on the 17th. Earlier, on the 5th, the government submitted a supplementary budget bill worth 11.7 trillion won to the National Assembly. It consists of a 3.2 trillion won revenue adjustment to cover the expected shortfall in revenue and an 8.5 trillion won expenditure budget for responding to COVID-19. Of the total supplementary budget of 11.7 trillion won, 2.3 trillion won will be invested in enhancing the quarantine system such as infectious disease quarantine, diagnosis, and treatment; 2.4 trillion won in supporting the recovery of small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners affected by COVID-19; 3 trillion won in supporting livelihood and employment stability for early overcoming of COVID-19; and 800 billion won in supporting the recovery of the depressed regional economy. The ruling party is pushing for an increase to the 18 trillion won level, arguing that the supplementary budget size is insufficient.

The Bank of Korea is expected to hold its third-ever emergency Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting around the 18th to decide whether to cut interest rates. If the Bank of Korea lowers the rate by 0.25 percentage points at the emergency MPC, the base interest rate will reach a record low of 1.00% per annum.

The government will hold a macroeconomic financial meeting chaired by Kim Yong-beom, the first vice minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, on the 16th. At this meeting, they plan to discuss measures to stabilize the stock and foreign exchange markets. On the 18th, Koo Yoon-chul, the second vice minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, will hold a fiscal management inspection meeting to review the status and plans of fiscal execution.

The Bank of Korea will announce monetary and liquidity indicators for January on the 17th. The growth rate of the money supply (M2 basis) in December last year was 7.9% compared to the same period last year, the highest in 3 years and 10 months since February 2016 (8.3%). On the same day, the Bank of Korea will release the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting held on the 27th of last month on its website.

The Statistics Korea will announce last year's marriage and divorce statistics on the 19th. The number of marriages last year was 239,210, down 18,412 from the previous year. This is the lowest number since statistics began to be compiled in 1970.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.