Audit Board: "Last Year's National Debt 939 Trillion Won"... Increased by 120 Trillion Won in One Year

National Debt-to-GDP Ratio at 45.6%... Sharp Increase of 3.2 Percentage Points from Previous Year

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] Last year, the national debt was confirmed to have increased by about 120 trillion won to approximately 939 trillion won compared to the previous year. This result comes from an examination of the Ministry of Economy and Finance's finalized revenue and expenditure settlements, financial statements, and performance reports from last month. The ratio of national debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) also rose by 3.2 percentage points from the previous year, reaching 45.6%.

On the 31st, the Board of Audit and Inspection announced that it submitted the government's "2021 Fiscal Year National Settlement Audit Report" containing these results to the National Assembly.

According to the report, the national debt for the 2021 fiscal year (based on the central government) was 939.1 trillion won, an increase of 119.9 trillion won from 819.2 trillion won the previous year. Consequently, the ratio of central government national debt to GDP rose to 45.6%, up 3.2 percentage points from 42.4% the previous year. The Board of Audit and Inspection explained that this was due to an increase in government bonds caused by deficit coverage of 85.6 trillion won and increased support of 31.8 trillion won for funds such as those for housing for low-income citizens.

Errors of overstatement and understatement in accounting were also identified. After correcting these errors, national assets increased by 26.1 trillion won to 2,866 trillion won compared to before the audit, and liabilities were revised downward by 1.1 trillion won to 2,195.3 trillion won. Problems were also found in the government's performance report. A total of eight issues were discovered regarding the validity of performance indicators, the appropriateness of performance targets, and the truthfulness of performance results.

Meanwhile, over the past year, the Board of Audit and Inspection conducted settlement and regular audits on 156 institutions and carried out performance, special, and citizen proposal audits on 88 matters. The Board confirmed a total of 1,558 cases of illegal or improper matters as a result of the audits, of which 704 cases were recommended or notified to the government to prepare measures such as improving system operations or reducing budgets. Disciplinary or accountability demands related to misconduct were made in 101 cases (199 individuals), and 37 cases (70 individuals) were referred for prosecution or investigation.

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