Political parties to spar over 'super' extra budget

SEOUL, April 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's ruling and opposition parties are likely to engage in a heated squabble over a massive supplementary budget as they start deliberations this week, political watchers said Sunday.

In a desperate effort to kick-start the quickly slumping economy, the government
okayed a 28.9-trillion won (US$21.7 billion) extra budget in late March,
equivalent to 3 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) and the
largest since 1998.
Starting Monday, subcommittees of the National Assembly will begin deliberating
on the supplementary budget, which is expected to be presented to the
parliament's full session on April 29 for approval.
The ruling Grand National Party stresses that the supplementary budget should be
passed without change in order to help the country overcome the worst economic
slump in more than 11 years.
Buffeted by tumbling exports and flaccid domestic demand, the South Korean
economy, Asia's fourth-largest, is widely expected to post negative growth for
the first time since the country's foreign exchange crisis in 1998.
However, the main opposition Democratic Party maintains the government should
scale back the extra budget since it will sharply increase national debt. It has
come up with its own version amounting to 13.8 trillion won.
The extra budget, to be funded mostly by the sale of government bonds, is the
latest in a string of economic stimulus measures that the government has unveiled
to counter the economic slowdown.
The government plans to put the extra budget's top priority on job creation and
stabilizing the livelihoods of low-income people, who have taken the brunt of the
economic downturn.
The number of jobless people in South Korea is expected to surpass 1 million for
March after reaching slightly over 800,000 in February, according to analysts.
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