727.9 trillion won: Lee administration's first budget passes Cabinet meeting

Korea Economic Daily

Summary

The Lee Jae-myung administration's first main budget passed the Cabinet meeting at a scale of 727.9 trillion won.
The budgets for the government's priority projects, support for issuing local gift certificates and the National Growth Fund, were kept as originally proposed.
Some cuts were made to the artificial intelligence (AI) support budget and policy fund budgets, and the contingency fund was reduced by about 200 billion won.

*Photo=President Lee's Facebook capture*

The Lee Jae-myung administration's first main budget for next year passed the Cabinet meeting.

The government deliberated and approved the 2026 budget at a Cabinet meeting held on the 9th at the Yongsan Presidential Office, presided over by President Lee Jae-myung. Earlier, the National Assembly held a plenary session on the 2nd, the statutory deadline for budget handling, and by bipartisan agreement processed next year's budget.

Next year's budget size is 727.9 trillion won. It is about 100 billion won less than the government's originally submitted proposal of 728 trillion won. It is 8.1% higher than this year's main budget of 673.3 trillion won compiled by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration last year.

By project, priority projects of the Lee Jae-myung administration—support for issuing local gift certificates at 1.15 trillion won and the National Growth Fund at 1 trillion won—were kept as originally proposed. An additional 400 billion won was allocated for building a disaster recovery system for the National Information Resources Service, and 61.8 billion won was added for creating a new demonstration city for the commercialization of autonomous vehicles.

However, some cuts were made to the artificial intelligence (AI) support budget and policy fund budgets, and the contingency fund was also reduced by about 200 billion won.

An agenda item stipulating that support expenses of 3.05143 billion won related to the extension of investigation periods for the special prosecutors for the insurrection and the Kim Keon-hee special prosecutor, the maintenance of prosecutions by the fallen marine special prosecutor whose activity period has ended, and the launch of the special prosecutor for the 'allegations of disposal of the gwanbong-gwon ribbon and the alleged pressure to not indict over Coupang severance pay' be paid from earmarked contingency funds also passed at this Cabinet meeting.

Kim So-yeon, Hankyung.com reporter sue123@hankyung.com