DISCUSSIONS ON YOON'S ECONOMIC POLICIES

[Anchor Lead]

Officials from the presidential office, the government and the ruling party held a meeting yesterday to discuss the Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s economic policy directions. While agreeing that the current economic situation is serious, they decided to place top priority on taming inflation.

[Pkg]

On his way to work Wednesday morning, President Yoon Suk-yeol assessed the current economic situation as a crisis.

[Soundbite] Yoon Suk-yeol(President) : "The economic situation is quite tricky due to surging prices and high interest rates worldwide. We need to work together to tackle this crisis."

Officials from the presidential office, the government and the ruling party sat down together at the National Assembly. They noted that the nation is now faced with a complicated economic crisis stemming from inflation and a slow down in growth rate. There was even an opinion that voiced concerns for a "prolonged economic war."

[Soundbite] Choo Kyung-ho(Deputy Prime Minister for Economy) : "A long battle against an economic crisis has begun. The government must win this war."

At the meeting, the ruling People Power Party asked the government to expand tax benefits and to ease regulations that discourage business activities.

[Soundbite] Kweon Seong-dong(Floor leader, People Power Party) : "Various regulations are dragging the economy down. It would be impossible to innovate the economy and overcome the crisis without regulatory reform."

The party also called for a greater cut on oil tax, saying that the government’s recent steps are not big enough to tackle soaring fuel prices. But they suggested a raise in power and gas rates, which they said were kept excessively low under the previous government. Following the meeting, the presidential office held a briefing and defined the current economic situation as a supply crisis. It then highlighted its efforts to counter the situation in an emergency mode. On its part, the main opposition Democratic Party launched an economic task force and checked consumer prices of daily necessities including foods. DP Floor Leader Park Hong-geun highlighteted the desperation citing a newly coined term referring to an entire group of "people who give up grocery shopping" due to unaffordability. He urged the government to come up with effective measures to curb the scorching inflation.