President Yoon Chairs First Chief Secretary Meeting... "Consider Measures Against Rising Prices" (Update)

Yoon "Compensation for COVID-19 affected small business owners must be executed early"
Yoon "Security situation is serious... Please study the impact of North Korea's nuclear tests carefully"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] President Yoon Suk-yeol urged his aides to "consider suppression measures according to the causes of price increases and pay attention to the situation of soaring international raw material prices." He especially emphasized that the aides should communicate organically with each other, saying, "The soles of your shoes must wear out."

On the morning of the 11th, the second day after his inauguration, at 9:10 a.m., President Yoon presided over the first senior secretary meeting and said, "The difficult economic situation does not temporarily ease just because the administration changes, and the people are always struggling with these hardships that bend their backs. In this situation, we must carefully fill in various economic indicators and continuously consider the causes of price increases and suppression measures according to those causes."

In particular, President Yoon added, "International raw material prices are fluctuating now, and due to the Ukraine situation, the price of wheat in our country has skyrocketed, affecting dietary life. Also, due to energy issues and stagflation (economic stagnation with rising prices), a red light is turning on for industrial competitiveness, so we all need to pay attention to this."

He also mentioned the supplementary budget for additional compensation for small business owners and self-employed people affected by COVID-19. President Yoon said, "As I promised during the presidential election, if prompt compensation support is not provided to small business owners and self-employed people who suffered damage from COVID-19, there is a very high risk that they will fall into welfare recipients. That itself will become a burden on the national finances in the future, so rather than that, we should pull forward the budget quickly. Although fiscal soundness is weak, we must execute it as early as possible so that these people can recover."

Regarding North Korea's resumption of nuclear tests, he said, "The security situation is not easy," and added, "Foreign countries are also worried, and there are talks about resuming nuclear tests. When such a situation occurs, you must carefully monitor and study whether it will affect not only security but also other directions of state affairs."

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