The nation’s fiscal deficit in 2023 is expected to halve compared to this year with the government placing focus on fiscal soundness in next year’s budget plan.

With the 639 trillion won budget plan, the nation’s deficit of the consolidated fiscal balance, excluding social security funds, is expected to reach 58-point-two trillion won. 

That sum is a 48-percent decrease from this year’s projected figure of nearly 111 trillion won, which includes the second supplementary budget, and the smallest amount to be posted since 2019.

The government also expects the budget proposal will reduce the fiscal deficit to two-point-six percent of the nation’s gross domestic product(GDP) from this year’s five-point-one percent.

While the national debt is forecast to account for 49-point-eight percent of the nation’s GDP at nearly one-quadrillion-135 trillion won next year, the government was quick to stress that the projected 66 trillion won increase in the national debt next year is the smallest margin in four years.