Provincial Gov`ts to Spend 60 Pct. of Budget in 1st Half

Provincial and municipal autonomous governments will spend 60 percent of their annual budgets in the first half of next year as they did this year.

The Public Administration and Security Ministry said Thursday that the decision came due to lingering uncertainty over economic recovery despite signs of a turnaround. It also said time is needed before the lower income bracket feels recovery.

A ministry official said front loading budget spending is expected to continue economic recovery and allow the central government to "aggressively" respond to uncertainty.

The ministry also plans to double its interest support for provincial governments that have to borrow money from financial institutions to frontload their budgets.

In addition, special grants ranging from 100 million won (85,030 U.S. dollars) up to 500 million won (425,170 dollars) will go to provincial and municipal governments that do well in budget frontloading. This year, provincial and municipal governments frontloaded 110 trillion won (93.5 billion dollars) in budget out of their overall annual expenditures of 190 trillion won (161.5 billion dollars).

The amount to be front-loaded by provincial and municipal governments next year, however, has not yet been determined because of the National Assembly`s failure to pass the budget bill.

argus@donga.com