SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean President Moon Jae-in will hold an emergency economic policy meeting on Thursday to discuss new stimulus packages, including a fourth supplementary budget, to lessen the coronavirus outbreak’s impact, his office said on Wednesday.
Details of the packages, which will be discussed in the planned 10:30 a.m. meeting, will be announced by the finance minister and related authorities later at 4 p.m., the Blue House said in a statement.
It also said the fourth supplementary budget will be drafted on Thursday, which will then be submitted for parliamentary approval.
On Sunday, the South Korean government and the ruling Democratic party agreed to pursue a fourth extra budget worth more than 7 trillion won ($5.89 billion), most of which would be funded by treasury bonds, a Democratic party spokesperson said.
Last month, South Korea’s left-leaning government unveiled plans to increase total spending by 8.5% to a record 555.8 trillion won next year to safeguard jobs and boost welfare for an economy hit by the coronavirus, even after rolling out a total 277 trillion won stimulus so far this year.
South Korea reported 156 new coronavirus infections as of Tuesday midnight, bringing the national tally to 21,588 cases and 344 deaths.
($1 = 1,188.0000 won)
(Reporting by Joori Roh; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
