South Korea , The East Asian country, drafts US$13.38 billion (15 trillion won) as an extra budget to hand support to small business and secure jobs as the pandemic pushes the government to retain social distancing curbs.
The South Korea ministry of finance said that there would be a increase in total government spending.
A total amount of 573 trillion won will be invested, that is up by11.9 per cent from previous year.
Because of this move, the South Korean government’s tax revenue has increased just by 0.3 per cent.
This the set to worsen the debt to GDP ratio by 8.4 per cent points to a record 48.2 per cent in the year 2021 versus 43.9 per cent previous year.
The Deputy Finance Minister for the budget, Ahn Do Geol, said:
“We want to make sure there are no blind spots left when it comes to using support funds (for small businesses), compared to how we spent them before.”
The latest South Korean budget is said to be the third largest ever to help ease the economy.
The South Korea government also said that it would extend nationwide social distancing rules for two weeks, which will also include a ban on private gatherings of more than four, to reduce the spread of virus.
As an assistance for small business, over seven billion dollars will be used for emergency assistance and also for the citizen’s who are at risk of losing their jobs due to pandemic.
Around 2.5 billion dollars will be used for emergency employment measures. By end of march, the funds are to be distributed
The beneficiaries will also include a wider range of small businesses, those with employees more than five
and also those with annual sales of less than some 9-hundred thousand dollars, up from previous cap of about 360-thousand dollars.
