[14 Trillion Snowflake Supplementary Budget] 10 Times and 151 Trillion Only Under Moon Government... Increase Expected in National Assembly

[Sejong=Asia Economy reporters Kim Hyunjung and Moon Chaeseok] The government has prepared a supplementary budget (supplementary budget) worth 14 trillion won to support small business owners who suffered damage due to COVID-19 quarantine measures. This is the tenth supplementary budget submitted to the National Assembly since the Moon Jae-in administration, with a total scale exceeding 151 trillion won. With the main budget, which has been rapidly increased every year, and the January supplementary budget realized, this year's total expenditure plan reaches 621 trillion won, but it is widely expected that the scale will increase further during the National Assembly review process.

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum held an extraordinary Cabinet meeting at the Government Complex Seoul on the morning of the 21st and approved a supplementary budget worth 14 trillion won for small business owners and quarantine support. Most of the funds will be raised through deficit bond issuance (11.3 trillion won), and an additional 2.7 trillion won of surplus funds from the Public Fund Management Fund will be used.

First, the quarantine support fund was expanded from 1 million won to 3 million won, and the payment target was expanded not only to small business owners who suffered damage due to gathering bans and business restrictions caused by COVID-19 but also to the travel and accommodation industries. A total of 9.6 trillion won in funds will be allocated to 3.2 million small business owners and small enterprises for quarantine support, and 1.9 trillion won will be invested in this supplementary budget as advance loss compensation of 5 million won for about 900,000 small business owners and small enterprises. In addition, 1.5 trillion won will be spent on strengthening quarantine measures such as securing hospital beds and purchasing therapeutics, and 1 trillion won will be used to reinforce contingency funds to respond to quarantine expenditures such as the spread of the Omicron variant.

This 'January supplementary budget,' the fastest ever, is likely to be the last and tenth supplementary budget under the Moon Jae-in administration. The government, which has prepared supplementary budgets every year during its term to increase expenditure, has a total supplementary budget amount of 151.3 trillion won over five years, which is five times and twice the average supplementary budget size (29.8 trillion won) and frequency (4.7 times) of the previous administrations: ▲Kim Dae-jung administration (29.4 trillion won, 8 times) immediately after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) foreign exchange crisis ▲Roh Moo-hyun administration (17.1 trillion won, 6 times) ▲Lee Myung-bak administration (33 trillion won, 2 times) during the global financial crisis ▲Park Geun-hye administration (40 trillion won, 3 times).

Based on this supplementary budget, the government's total annual expenditure will increase by 11.4% to 621.7 trillion won compared to last year's main budget (558 trillion won). With this supplementary budget, South Korea's national debt will reach 1,075.7 trillion won, equivalent to 50.1% of the gross domestic product (GDP). However, since the supplementary budget projects are likely to be significantly expanded during the National Assembly review process, additional deterioration of fiscal soundness is expected.

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