The central government’s debt that had reached 509 trillion won ($459.6 billion) in November dipped in the last month of 2014, mainly due to efforts to repay state bonds, the finance ministry said Tuesday.
However, the ministry did not say by how much. It said exact numbers for December and 2014 will be announced around April when the settlement of revenues and expenditures are tallied.
The latest Monthly Public Finance report said the government took steps to repay and buy back Treasurys and state housing bonds in December.
The government hinted that the dip in December was substantial enough to meet its goal of keeping central government debt at 499.5 trillion won for the whole of 2014. The number would still be a gain from the 464 trillion won in 2013.
In December, tax revenues stood at 16.1 trillion won. The total for 2014 hit 205.5 trillion won, a gain of 3.6 trillion won compared with the year before.
For January, the ministry said it spent 26.1 trillion won of the 313.3 trillion won earmarked for use this year. This represents 8.3 percent of all money that will be used by the government to support various projects in 2015.
Policymakers have vowed to frontload this year’s budget to help fuel economic growth. The goal is to use 58 percent of the allocated budget before the end of June, with outlay numbers rising to 60 percent in social overhead capital development, job creation and measures to stabilize the livelihoods of ordinary citizens.
State-owned assets were valued at 937.8 trillion won as of last month, up 800 billion won from December. Earnings generated by such holdings reached 109.7 billion won, according to the report. (Yonhap)
