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SKorean president vows to kickstart slumping economy
AFP - 2 hours 50 minutes ago
SEOUL (AFP) - - South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak said Friday his government will step up efforts to bolster the slumping economy, including boosting liquidity and introducing tax cuts.
His comments come as Seoul struggles amid the world financial meltdown, which has hit South Korea hard.
"Any country or individual in the world was unable to foresee the start of this global economic crisis. Likewise, no one is able to predict when it will end," Lee said during the live address.
"There is a forecast that the economy will start getting better in the latter half of this year. I will do my best to make sure this positive outlook will come true," he added.
He said last week that South Korea had sealed currency swap deals with China, Japan and the United States worth a total of 90 billion dollars.
"Now, voices expressing concerns about South Korea's foreign exchange reserves have died down," he said.
But the won weakened sharply in the first trading day of the new year, trading at 1,322 won per dollar in mid-morning, compared with 1,259.5 won the previous trading day, as demand for the greenback rose for import settlements.
Lee said the government will give priority to easing the credit crunch, noting that Seoul has already been funnelling more than 20 trillion won (15 billion dollars) into banks for this purpose.
Financial support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be increased by more than 11 trillion won.
For SMEs that place workers on temporary paid leave instead of laying them off, the government will shoulder up to three quarters of their wages to avoid unemployment, Lee said.
The government will also ease regulations and cut taxes to encourage investment while spending 60 percent of this year's budget in the first half of the year to bolster demand.
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said in its Outlook and Policy Outline for 2009 that growth next year would be "more or less three percent," compared with last year's expected 3.6 percent.
Even the revised growth target is one percentage point higher than the central Bank of Korea's prediction of two percent made earlier this month.
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