Seoul’s 2022 budget to push debt higher

High cost: A nurse administers a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at the Love Hospital in Seoul. The pandemic bolstered the country’s spending push, resulting in six extra budgets since early 2020. ― Bloomberg

SEOUL: South Korea’s smallest budget increase in four years will still push the country’s debt load to a record level of more than half the size of the economy, likely adding to concerns over the sustainability of unprecedented pandemic spending.

The government will raise fiscal expenditure by 8.3% from this year’s initial outlay to 604.4 trillion won (US$518bil or RM2.2 trillion), the finance ministry said in a budget proposal.