Daejeon-type Emergency Disaster Livelihood Support Fund Contributes to Revitalizing Local Economy

Monthly sales change graph of commercial districts in Daejeon based on credit card sales from February to April. Provided by Daejeon City.

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Daejeon-type emergency disaster livelihood support fund payment has been analyzed to have played a crucial role in revitalizing the local economy.

The Big Data Team of the Informatization Office of Daejeon City announced on the 19th that the payment of the emergency disaster livelihood support fund is believed to have had a rebound effect on the sales decline caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

According to the Big Data Team's analysis of sales by industry using credit card (Kookmin and Hana) sales big data, the total sales of all industries in the Daejeon area in March amounted to 550.79 billion KRW, which is 136.09 billion KRW (19.8%) less than 686.88 billion KRW in March last year. This shows that sales declined significantly during the period when social distancing was maintained due to COVID-19.

However, from the 13th to the 30th of last month, when the emergency disaster livelihood support fund began to be paid, the total sales of all industries in the region amounted to 626.29 billion KRW, which is 38.51 billion KRW (5.8%) less than 666.8 billion KRW in the same period last year, indicating that the rate of sales decline has eased.

In fact, the city paid emergency disaster livelihood support funds ranging from 300,000 KRW (for single-person households) to 700,000 KRW (for households with six or more members) to households with incomes exceeding 50% but not exceeding 100% of the median income from the 13th to the 30th of last month. The Big Data Team explained that out of the total 33.82 billion KRW of emergency disaster livelihood support funds paid during this period, 14.27 billion KRW (42.2%) was spent in the local commercial districts.

Arithmetically, this means that the emergency disaster livelihood support fund was consumed at an average of 790 million KRW per day, with the highest daily consumption amount recorded on the 14th at 990 million KRW.

Furthermore, the industries where the emergency disaster support funds were mainly consumed were retail stores such as convenience stores and supermarkets (3.7 billion KRW, 26.0%), food and beverages (2.148 billion KRW, 15.1%), general restaurants (2.094 billion KRW, 14.7%), medical institutions and pharmaceuticals (1.241 billion KRW, 8.7%), and clothing (1.018 billion KRW, 7.1%), in that order.

By autonomous district, Dong-gu had the largest consumption scale of emergency disaster livelihood support funds at 4.06 billion KRW, while Daedeok-gu had the smallest at 910 million KRW.

Additionally, the city views that the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s child care coupon payments have also contributed to revitalizing the Daejeon local commercial districts to some extent. This is because the start date of payment and consumption patterns (such as the most used places) appeared similar to those of the local emergency disaster livelihood support fund.

The Big Data Team stated, “The payment of the Daejeon-type emergency disaster livelihood support fund and child care coupons on the 13th of last month seems to have contributed to boosting sales in local commercial districts and revitalizing the commercial areas,” adding, “The city plans to use this analysis as basic data to prepare post-COVID-19 response measures in the future.”

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