President Lee Jae-myung said on the 1st that "the current rise in interest rates cannot be avoided," calling for fiscal policy to "take on a finely calibrated division of roles so that the pain of vulnerable groups is minimized and growth potential is not damaged as a result."
Lee made the remarks at the 38th Cabinet meeting he presided over at Cheong Wa Dae, saying, "We now stand at a crossroads between entrenched low growth and a rebound in potential growth." Turning to next year's budget bill, which was scheduled for deliberation that day, he said, "The world is now facing a major inflection point in the industrial order," adding that "the fundamental structure of the global economy and industry is changing as the artificial intelligence revolution, the great energy transition and the realignment of global supply chains converge."
He stressed that "next year's budget must be a solid stepping stone that propels South Korea into a leading nation with an insurmountable edge." He added that it "must at the same time serve as priming water that brings visible change across the lives of the people."
Lee said the government "has completed work on the budget bill with a focus on core goals including creating future growth engines, building a ladder of hope for young adults, substantially easing polarization and strengthening the livelihood safety net." He said the budget would "produce results that people can feel, such as rapid progress on the three mega projects and the seven SEED policies, support of up to 200 million won per young adult, the creation of 10 startup cities, the supply of 200,000 public housing units and an expansion of basic income for farming and fishing communities."
Lee stressed that "a productive virtuous-cycle fiscal strategy is essential, one that grows the economic pie and upgrades industrial capacity with expanded future resources, and in turn expands fiscal capacity." He added that "politics must also pool its wisdom and strength for a new leap forward in the national economy."
He said, "I say once again that if the National Assembly broadly gathers public opinion during the budget deliberation process and supplements what is needed, the government will fully respect that," adding, "I hope the political community will cooperate in a broad-minded spirit so that this can be a budget that creates hope for all citizens that tomorrow will be better than today."
