Local Finances, Full Effort for 60.5% Rapid Execution in the First Half of the Year

Focus on Leading Livelihood Stability and Economic Recovery

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] In response to challenging economic conditions, 60.5% of local government finances are expected to be concentrated in the first half of the year for proactive economic measures.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 5th that, anticipating worsening external conditions and increased difficulties in the livelihood economy during the first half of this year, it will accelerate fiscal execution together with local governments from the beginning of the year.

The local finance execution target for the first half of the year has been actively set at 60.5%, higher than last year's first half execution rate (60.2%). Accordingly, approximately 131.3 trillion KRW, which corresponds to 60.5% of the rapid execution management budget (217 trillion KRW), will be executed early. To this end, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and local governments will closely cooperate to make comprehensive efforts from budget formulation to execution management.

The direction for local finance execution in the first half includes ▲ strategic local finance management for maximum execution in the first half ▲ active utilization of the rapid execution system and thorough execution management ▲ strengthening the execution management system and actively resolving execution difficulties. Additionally, local public enterprises will also focus on managing projects closely related to residents' lives, such as the construction of public rental housing and Happy Housing for low-income housing stability, and improvement projects for water and sewage facilities, to ensure smooth execution.

Meanwhile, the aggregated fiscal execution performance of 243 local governments last year showed a total execution amount of 487.7 trillion KRW (execution rate 88.2%), marking the largest local finance execution performance ever recorded.

Minister of the Interior and Safety Sangmin Lee stated, “As the economy is expected to show a low start and high finish this year, the role of local finance has become even more important following last year,” adding, “We will closely cooperate with local governments to ensure that rapid and proactive fiscal execution makes local finance a catalyst for stabilizing livelihoods and revitalizing the regional economy.”

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