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National debt without payment resources to near 900 trillion won

Published: 20 Apr. 2025, 12:29

A file photo of national debt, provided by Yonhap [YONHAP]

Korea's national debt without available payment resources is projected to near 900 trillion won ($634 billion) this year, the government said Sunday.

The country's national debt is expected to reach 885.4 trillion won in 2025, up 11.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

The amount, if realized, will account for 69.2 percent of the country's overall national debt, up from 66.3 percent last year.

Part of the annual increase may come from a 12.2 trillion-won supplementary budget, which, according to the government, will increase the country's national debt by 6 trillion won if implemented.

National debt without payment resources refers to debt that has to be repaid with taxpayers' money.

The amount of such debt has been steadily increasing since it surpassed the 300 trillion won mark for the first time in 2015, and recorded two-digit rate increases annually between 2020 and 2022 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yonhap