S. Korea's economic recovery to be slower than after '97 crisis: minister

SEOUL, March 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korea may take longer to recover economically than a decade ago when the nation was hit by the Asia-wide financial meltdown, Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun said Wednesday.

"With the whole world suffering from a recession, it will be a slower and longer
road to economic recovery than the one we took after the financial crisis (a
decade ago)," Yoon told a Seoul forum. "We may have to take another deep breath."
South Korea is feared to fall into the first recession in 11 years. Yoon earlier
predicted that the economy, Asia's fourth-largest, will contract 2 percent with
around 200,000 jobs to be lost this year.
On Tuesday, the government proposed a 28.9-trillion won (US$20.7 billion) extra
budget aimed at creating jobs and reviving the economy. He predicts the
additional spending alone could lead to a 1.5-percentage point hike in gross
domestic product and 550,000 new jobs.
Since most of the additional budget is to be funded by the sale of government
bonds, the ratio of debt to gross domestic product will rise from 34.1 percent to
38.5 percent. Yoon said that a temporary fiscal deficit was "inevitable" but the
extra budget would contribute to the nation's fiscal health in the long term.