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Video Description

Type: KIHASA Policy Featurette

Topic: Is the 2024 Government Budget All Talk, No Action?

Guest Speaker: Woo, Seok-jin, Professor, Myongji University

Transcript

A ‘words-actions’ mismatch is what I see the government’s 2024 budget as. Soundness being the most emphasized cornerstone of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s fiscal management, one might ask: Is the 2024 budget a sound fiscal plan―a budget with which to work toward sound public finances? Not in the least. Total expenditure has been cut, yes. Yet, given the projected decline in tax revenues, it’s, technically, an expansion that will only add to the national debt. Thus, as I see it, the budget is hardly conducive to achieving fiscal soundness. Speaking of which, while there are fiscal rules where the finance ministry puts forward a deficit limit of 3 percent of GDP, the actual deficit is close to 4 percent. Thus, the ministry has proposed a budget that does not comply with its own prescribed standards. That’s how the ‘title and content’ do not match.