Choo Kyung-ho "Debt Rapidly Increasing... Must Approach Spending Expansion Cautiously"

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho is giving a proposal explanation on next year's budget bill at the plenary meeting of the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts held at the National Assembly on the 3rd. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

On the 3rd, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho responded to the opposition party's demand for expansionary fiscal policy by stating, "If we manage the finances recklessly as debt rapidly increases, the national debt will become too large, causing problems with external creditworthiness and price stability."

On the same day, Deputy Prime Minister Choo attended the plenary session of the National Assembly's Special Committee on Budget and Accounts to review next year's economic department budget proposal, stating, "Increasing expenditures presupposes taking on large-scale debt, which requires a very cautious and prudent approach." He also warned, "It is not desirable to burden future generations and young people with massive debt."

The day before, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, criticized the government's sound fiscal policy stance and urged the need for expansionary fiscal policy during a press briefing on the people's livelihood economy at the National Assembly.

In response to a question from Ahn Byung-gil, a member of the People Power Party, asking, "What do you think about the opposition's claim that fiscal policy is pulling down the government's growth rate?" Deputy Prime Minister Choo rebutted, "The government's contribution to growth from the first to third quarter this year was 44%, whereas the contribution of past governments was around 25%."

Regarding the research and development (R&D) budget proposal, Deputy Prime Minister Choo stated, "We have a firm philosophy that the driving force behind South Korea's development comes from R&D." The day before, President Yoon Suk-yeol had said, "We are well aware of the concerns in the research field." This has led to speculation that the heavily cut R&D budget might be supplemented.

Deputy Prime Minister Choo continued, "We will carefully review the budget related to research personnel to ensure there are no negative impacts after the fact," and explained, "We will listen to experts and academia and significantly increase the necessary parts going forward."

Regarding the budget cuts for next year's Saemangeum social overhead capital (SOC) projects, he responded, "We have re-examined the budgets for all SOC projects, not just Saemangeum, from the ground up," and added, "Since a review service related to the Saemangeum project is underway, necessary budgets will be reflected."

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