Invest KOREA

Hiring increases, readiness towards the transition to the fourth industrial revolution, low birth rate, and income inequalities will be the focus of South Korea’s fiscal spending for next year, according to the 2018 budget outline.

The government on Tuesday approved the 2018 budget outline that proposes spending of 420 trillion won ($377.2 billion), compared with this year`s 400.5 trillion won.

The budget outline that may require rework after a new administration is formed following May 9 presidential election proposes enhanced social security for low-income and senior and disabled citizens as a part of efforts to address widening wealth gap.

In 2016, the income quintile share ratio, calculated as the ratio between the total income of the 20 percent of highest bracket and the 20 percent lowest hit 4.48, highest since 4.98 in 2008 amid the global financial crisis.

The government will appropriate spending to nurture talents and infrastructure in the innovations of big data, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and augmented reality (AR) that will dominate the new industrial age.

Spending also would be focused to boost jobs for the young people amid signs of little improvement in job scarcity. The nation’s unemployment rate of the youth aged between 15 and 29 hit an-all-time high last year of 9.8 percent. In February, monthly youth jobless rate reached 12.3 percent, the second highest since the government started to compile the data.

The government will cancel redundant and unnecessary projects and review projects requiring government subsidies to obtain enough funds for the four key sectors, it said.

By Kim Se-woong and Na Hyun-joon

Copyrights Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Source: Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea (Mar. 29, 2017)