The government has drawn up a budget plan worth 639 trillion won for next year, a five-point-two percent increase from this year.

The budget was finalized during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, resulting in a spending plan with the lowest on-year increase since 2017, when the government had raised the budget by three-point-seven percent.

To secure funds for next year’s budget, the government will restructure expenditures to the tune of 24 trillion won, the largest amount to date.

As part of such restructuring efforts, the government will scrap temporary measures it had laid out to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and freeze the wages of civil servants who rank grade four or above. Officials at the minister or vice minister level will be obligated to return ten percent of their salaries.

The restructuring is expected to result in a consolidated fiscal balance deficit of 58-point-two trillion won next year, excluding social security funds, nearly half of the almost 111 trillion won deficit projected for this year.

Stressing the importance of financial stability in the face of various economic crises, finance minister Choo Kyung-ho said the government decided to focus on fiscal soundness in compiling next year’s budget.