Government to accelerate executing more budget to stimulate economy

[Anchor]

As the sense of crisis deepens in our economy, the government has pulled out the 'rapid execution' card.

The plan is to quickly release the largest amount of funds in history from next year's budget to stimulate the economy.

How effective will this be? Reporter Hwang Hyun-kyu has looked into it.

[Report]

The government has decided to allocate part of next year's budget to each ministry within this year.

They aim to save time on budget distribution so that it can be executed immediately on January 1.

The scale of execution is also 11.6 trillion won, the largest allocation before the start of the fiscal year in history.

The intention is to stimulate the economy through 'rapid execution' of the budget, and this time they plan to release funds much faster and in larger amounts.

This is the fastest pace since 2021, when COVID-19 was prevalent.

It is interpreted as a commitment not to miss the 'golden time' to revive the domestic economy.

The problem is how effective this will be.

In the case of rapid execution, since the size of the budget remains the same but the timing is just moved forward, some research indicates that the effect on revitalizing the local economy is minimal.

In particular, nearly half of this rapid execution budget is allocated to SOC projects that are not closely related to people's livelihoods.

[Woo Seok-jin/Professor of Economics at Myongji University: "(The problem) lies in the fact that local businesses or self-employed individuals are currently struggling with sales. Increasing spending on social overhead capital (SOC) cannot solve this issue, so the problem and the answer do not match right now."]

Deputy Prime Minister for Economy Choi Sang-mok has drawn a line on the possibility of supplementary budgets, stating that 'rapid execution' is the priority.

He also announced that the limit on bringing in two bottles of duty-free alcohol from abroad will be lifted to boost domestic consumption.

The government is expected to announce its economic policy direction for next year soon.

KBS News, Hwang Hyun-kyu.