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SKorea announces 10.7 bln dlr stimulus
AFP - 2 hours 11 minutes ago
SEOUL (AFP) - - South Korea Monday announced a 10.7 billion dollar plan to stimulate economic growth in the face of a global slowdown.
The government, saying it expects a significant slowdown in exports, detailed plans to spend an extra 11 trillion won next year, plus tax cuts totalling three trillion, to boost sagging domestic demand.
"The ongoing global financial turmoil originated from the US subprime mortgage credit crunch is causing concern over a global economic downturn," Minister of Strategy and Finance Kang Man-Soo told reporters.
"Financial market uncertainties have been aggravated and are exerting a knock-on impact on the real economy," he said, stressing the need for the package to stimulate Asia's fourth largest economy.
The government, under fire for weeks over its perceived weak leadership amid the global crisis, announced a wide-ranging plan to stabilise the shaky won and to boost the economy.
The finance ministry, in a statement announcing the measures, said short-term prospects for a turnaround in the global turmoil appear dim.
"Against this background, the Korean government proposes... policy measures to cope with these unprecedented challenges by announcing pre-emptive, decisive and sufficient counter-measures," it said.
Of the 11 trillion won in extra public spending proposed for 2009, 4.l6 trillion won would be spent on social infrastructure such as schools, universities, hospitals and libraries.
Another 3.4 trillion would be used to help small and medium-sized firms, farmers and fishermen.
One trillion won would be used to help low-income households and 1.1 trillion to support local governments. In addition to government spending, public enterprises would expand investment by one trillion won.
The original 2009 budget submitted to parliament this month was for 273.8 trillion won, including spending by state-run funds, based on an assumption of five percent growth next year.
But the ministry Monday cut its 2009 growth forecast to around four percent, while tipping growth of four to 4.5 percent this year.
It announced a series of steps to revitalise the sagging property market, warning that "a potential sharp drop in asset prices may undermine the financial health of Korean financial institutions."
These largely ease restrictions imposed in recent years to curb speculation when the property market was soaring.
South Korea had been dogged by fears of a re-run of the 1997-98 financial crisis, partly because its banks were more exposed than elsewhere in Asia to repayment of dollar-denominated loans.
In October the government announced state guarantees worth up to 100 billion dollars on foreign borrowing by local banks. It followed up last week with news of a currency swap arrangement worth 30 billion dollars with the US Federal Reserve.
The news sharply pushed up the stock market and the won, which had been Asia's worst performing major currency this year.
The finance ministry said Monday it would also try to expand bilateral swap arrangements with China and Japan.
It said it would increase the ceiling of the foreign exchange stabilisation fund from the current 15 trillion won to 20.6 trillion, equivalent to twice the average daily exchange trading volume.
Extra funds would go to promote exports, while efforts to reach free trade deals with the Europen Union and India would be speeded up.
Authorities would try to avoid "extreme volatilities" in the forex market with smoothing operations.
And Foreign currency bank deposits would enjoy the same level of guarantee as local currency deposits.
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