South Korea said Tuesday it plans to focus its fiscal policy for next year on propping up the economic recovery and strengthen fiscal soundness amid mounting national debt.

Under the 2023 budget guidelines, approved by the Cabinet, the government plans to normalize COVID-19 related emergency spending to pre-pandemic levels and make efforts to secure fiscal space to support new policy goals by the incoming government, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Government ministries and agencies will use the guidelines to draw up their spending plans by end-May for the 2023 national budget. But details could be changed later in line with policy objectives to be laid out under the incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration.

South Korea has maintained an expansionary fiscal policy and drawn up seven rounds of extra budgets to cope with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the country's national debt has increased at a fast pace and its fiscal deficit has sharply widened. (Yonhap)