South Korea set aside $7.4 Blllion to pay families to ease impact of Coronavirus

South Korea will make emergency cash payments to all but the richest families and draw up a second supplementary budget on April.

This will be in a bid to ease the drawn-out economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak, President Moon Jae-in said on Monday.


Moon, after an emergency meeting with economic policymakers, said an emergency disaster relief payment of up to one million won (820 dollars) would be made to all households except the top 30 per cent by income, totalling some 9.1 trillion won (7.44 billion dollars).

Officials said they would prepare another extra budget worth 7.1 trillion won (5.80 billion dollars) for parliamentary approval in April and some small- and medium-sized companies would be exempt from paying utility bills starting this month.

“Citizens suffered from the coronavirus and they all deserve to be rewarded for their pain and participation in preventive efforts.

“There is a need for the government to reserve as much financial power to brace for an economic shock with no end in sight.

“Also promptly respond to labour market insecurity and any potential corporate liquidity crisis,” Moon told the meeting in comments broadcast on television.