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Next year's budget of 604 trillion won was confirmed at the Cabinet meeting. This is the largest budget ever to respond to COVID-19, resolve polarization, and implement carbon neutrality. 



By Kim Jung-woo, staff reporter.



<Reporter> The



government has revised the budget for next year to 604.4 trillion won, an increase of 47 trillion won or 8.3% from this year.



In order to implement major national tasks such as responding to COVID-19, resolving polarization, and carbon neutrality, we have chosen the expansionary budget, which has more total expenditure than total revenue.



[Hong Nam-ki / Deputy Prime Minister of Economy: The COVID-19 pandemic is still in progress, and we must overcome and overcome it with certainty. In addition, efforts for inclusive recovery to close the widening gap and preemptive response efforts in the increasingly fierce global competition are urgently needed.]



KRW 115 trillion was allocated for both economic recovery and polarization.



We decided to invest 1.8 trillion won in compensation for losses of small businesses and provide emergency funds of 1.4 trillion won to low-credit small business owners who have lost money due to declining sales.



To close the income gap, we decided to invest 31.3 trillion won to create 2.11 million public and private jobs.



The budget for responding to infectious diseases, such as vaccines and quarantine, has increased significantly from 880 billion won this year to 5.6 trillion won.



Of this, 2.6 trillion won, or about half, was allocated to the purchase of an additional 90 million doses of the vaccine, and the rest of the budget will be used for vaccine research and development.



The budget for health, welfare and employment was 216.7 trillion won, exceeding 200 trillion won for the first time.



The Korean version of the New Deal, which is part of the government's core national development strategy, will invest 33.7 trillion won in budget, and 12 trillion won will be invested in 2050 carbon neutrality, such as establishing a climate response fund worth 2.5 trillion won.



After the 2020 budget, the national debt will exceed KRW 1,000 trillion next year, and the national debt-to-GDP ratio will also exceed 50%.