S Korean government to embody supplementary budget

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Chinese media) -- South Korea's Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun

said that the nation's government is having discussions on the volume of a

supplementary budget and hinted at an increase in size, South Korea's Yonhap

News Agency reported Friday.

"The amount of the supplementary budget is now under discussion, but I'll

ensure that the ruling party's demand will not be hurt," said Yoon in a meeting

with a group of ruling party lawmakers.

South Korea's ruling party has recently demanded the government to set the

size of the extra budget between 30 trillion won to 40 trillion won, or 10.7

billion U.S. dollars to 26.3 billion U.S. dollars.

The ruling party has been emphasizing the provision of an extra budget to

drive the sluggish South Korean economy out of the current crisis, Yonhap said.

The finance minister also said that the resources of the supplementary

budget will be funded through privatizing state-run firms and mobilizing the

central bank's surplus budgets.