S. Korea's fiscal spending on SOC projects creates more jobs in Q1: gov't

SEJONG, April 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korea increased fiscal spending on infrastructure-building projects in the first three months of the year contributed to the creation of more jobs, the finance ministry here said Friday.

The government spent 14.9 trillion won carrying out social overhead capital projects in the January-March period, up 200 million won from its earlier plan, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. The move aimed to expand the state's role in leading economic recovery for Asia's fourth largest economy.

Total budget spending by the government and public institutions reached 89.3 trillion won over the three-month period.

The ministry said the extended government spending contributed to raising the number of newly employed people in the construction sector by 164,000 in March.

It said the government will make constant efforts to encourage public agencies to follow through on the budget spending plan as fast as possible in order to enhance its fiscal impact on the overall economy.

The South Korean government earlier said it will spend nearly 60 percent of the 400 trillion won (US$351.6 billion) budget for 2017 in the first half to prop up growth, which has shown some signs of an upturn in recent months thanks to recovered global demand.

brk@yna.co.kr
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