S.Korea proposes 475 bln USD budget for 2023

SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- South Korea on Tuesday proposed a budget of 639 trillion won (475.2 billion U.S. dollars) for 2023 in the lowest fiscal spending growth in six years.

The proposed budget was endorsed at the cabinet meeting, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

It was up 5.2 percent from this year's budget of 607.7 trillion won (452 billion U.S. dollars), marking the lowest gain in six years since 2017.

The 2023 proposal represented a 6-percent fall compared to this year's total fiscal expenditure of 679.5 trillion won (505.4 billion U.S. dollars) including two rounds of supplementary budgets.

The budget proposal was planned to be submitted on Friday to the National Assembly for approval.

The government of President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, had vowed to adopt an austerity policy after an expansionary fiscal spending was kept in place under the previous government to tackle an economic downturn from the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the austerity policy, the Yoon government will slash non-core fiscal expenditure by a record 24 trillion won (17.8 billion U.S. dollars) next year.

Fiscal deficit in 2023 was estimated at 58.2 trillion won (43.3 billion U.S. dollars), or 2.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). It almost halved compared to this year's deficit estimate of 110.8 trillion won (82.4 billion U.S. dollars), or 5.1 percent of the GDP.

The country's national debt was forecast to grow to 1,134.8 trillion won (844 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023 from 1,068.8 trillion won (794.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022.