Lee Jae-myung "Expanding Support for Low-Income People Taking High-Interest Loans"... Budget Proposal to Reflect This

Emphasis on Expanding Financial Support for Ordinary People on Site
Promise to Include 'Minsheng Recovery Program' in Budget Proposal

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, emphasized the expansion of financial support for ordinary citizens amid high interest rate conditions. To this end, he announced plans to include the 'Three Major Emergency Livelihood Recovery Programs' for financially vulnerable groups, housing-vulnerable groups, small business owners, and self-employed individuals in the budget proposal.

On the 16th, Lee visited the Central Integrated Support Center for Ordinary Citizens' Finance located in Jung-gu, Seoul, and made these remarks. He held a meeting with the support center to discuss support measures for low-credit and high-interest loan recipients.

Earlier that day at the party's Supreme Council meeting, Lee stated, "The economic and livelihood situation is serious. It is clear that it will not improve but worsen going forward," emphasizing, "Vulnerable groups are becoming more distressed. It is urgent to prepare meticulous support measures."

He continued, "Our Democratic Party intends to reflect the Three Major Emergency Livelihood Recovery Programs in the budget for the three areas of financially vulnerable groups, housing-vulnerable groups, and small business owners and self-employed individuals facing limit situations."

He promised three key measures: ▲support for loan conversion for ordinary citizens with high-interest loans ▲expansion of interest support for monthly rent deposits for low-income and homeless individuals ▲support for livelihood recovery through government purchase of non-performing loans of small business owners and self-employed individuals.

Regarding the funding plan, he said, "Our party estimates that it will require more than 1.2 trillion won, but we believe there is no problem securing funds even by partially adjusting the ultra-rich tax cuts (budget proposal)." He added, "The government will transform the ruthless privilege budget into a warm livelihood budget that protects the lives of the people through the Democratic Party."

At the support center that day, Lee also emphasized, "Because the pain of our ordinary citizens due to high interest rates and high prices is becoming too great, it will not be easy to come up with realistic measures," adding, "All the more reason not to leave it solely to the market but to expand the government's role and strengthen support for ordinary citizens' finance as another path."

He further stated, "When interest rates rise, it becomes very difficult for ordinary citizens to get loans, and eventually, they are driven to loan sharks or private loan markets, suffering tremendously from murderous high interest rates," and said, "Because we need to create realistic alternatives, I think it is necessary to expand and enhance support for ordinary citizens' finance."

In response, Lee Jae-yeon, president of the Korea Inclusive Finance Agency, said, "Through policy measures, we are resolving financial difficulties of financially vulnerable groups and supporting economic rehabilitation and bankruptcy prevention of individual debtors through debt adjustment." He added, "The main support targets are those in financial blind spots such as low-income, low-credit individuals, youth with unstable income, and vulnerable borrowers pushed into limit situations due to excessive debt who find it difficult to use institutional finance."

He also urged the National Assembly's attention, saying, "Despite expanding policy support for ordinary citizens' finance, many people are still driven to illegal private loans such as loan sharks."

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