[Economic Outlook] How Much More Tax Was Collected from January to May... Also Noteworthy: Current Account Surplus Size

This Week's Major Economic Schedule

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] As the government announced that tax revenue increased by 32.7 trillion won from January to April, drawing attention to tax revenue trends, the aggregated data through May will be disclosed next week.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance will release the monthly fiscal trend report on the 7th. The report, based on May data, will provide insights into government revenue and expenditure, fiscal balance, and national debt.

Due to a booming asset market and economic recovery, national tax revenue from January to April reached 133.4 trillion won, an increase of 32.7 trillion won compared to the same period last year. The progress rate, which is the ratio of the actual amount collected to the annual target, stood at 47.2%. This means that half of the annual target was already collected by April. The progress rate was 11.9 percentage points higher than the previous year.

The Korea Development Institute (KDI) will also release its July economic outlook on the same day. In the June economic outlook, it was assessed that "although the improvement in manufacturing temporarily slowed, the sluggishness in the service sector is gradually easing, maintaining a moderate economic recovery trend."

The Bank of Korea will announce the 'May Balance of Payments (provisional)' results on the same day. The current account surplus for April was recorded at 1.91 billion dollars (approximately 2.1249 trillion won). This marks the 12th consecutive month of surplus since May last year and an increase of 5.21 billion dollars compared to the same month last year (-3.3 billion dollars). Since exports and freight rates are strong enough to offset seasonal deficit factors such as dividend payments to foreign investors, it is expected that the surplus streak will continue for the 13th consecutive month in May.

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