South Korea’s liabilities exceed GDP for first time

South Korea's liabilities reached 1,985.3 trillion won in 2020, up 241.6 trillion won, or 13.8 percent, from a year earlier, surpassing the country's estimated gross domestic product of 1,924 trillion won.

It was the first time total national liabilities last year exceeded the country’s gross domestic product, the Finance Ministry said.

The national debt reached a record 846.9 trillion won as of end-December, up 123.7 trillion won from 2019. The amount translates to about 16.34 million won in debt per capita for a country with a 51.8 million population.

The ministry noted that the national debt to GDP ratio was 44 percent, increasing 6.3 percent from a year ago.

The increase is mainly due to state debt raised by treasury bonds to support fiscal spending including four rounds of relief handouts to contain the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The consolidated fiscal account registered a 71.2 trillion won deficit, increasing by 59.2 trillion won from the previous year as the government increased spending to revitalize the economy amid a falling tax revenue.

According to Kang Seung-joon, head of the Fiscal Management Bureau of the Finance Ministry, South Korea's fiscal health is in relatively good shape as major economies also suffer large deficits due to the pandemic-triggered expansionary spending.

In January, the IMF projected the average overall deficits for advanced economies as a share of GDP in 2020 at -13.3 percent. The figure for South Korea is at -3.1 percent.