|
While governments around the world have been spending astronomical amounts of money to overcome the economic crisis, the Korean administration has actually spent only about W5 trillion despite a pledge to inject W33 trillion to boost the economy (US$1=W1,467).
Most pump-priming policies are reflected in next year's budget instead of quick action in a supplementary budget available now, and the National Assembly is still sitting on the budget.
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance on Tuesday announced pump-priming measures worth W33.3 trillion, 3.7 percent of the GDP, to help businesses and cut taxes. It promised W9 trillion to deal with high oil prices, W10.3 trillion to implement tax cuts, and W14 trillion to overcome economic difficulties.
But only W5.4 trillion of the W9 trillion the government pledged in June, before the financial crisis began to sweep the world, has been spent to deal with then-soaring oil prices. Some W4.6 trillion from a supplementary budget allocated to stabilize public utility fees is to be spent before the end of this year. But as the passage of the budget bill dragged on in the National Assembly, spending only started in October. As of the end of October, only W1 trillion (22 percent of W4.6 trillion) had been spent.
Huh Chan-guk, director of economic research at the Korea Economic Research Institute, said, "It takes time to overcome the economic crisis, but Korea lags behind worldwide efforts due to the government's laziness and bickering among politicians."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
