Increase in Fund Revenue from National Pension Overseas Investments
National Debt Balance at 1,159.5 Trillion Won
From January to November last year, the national budget deficit increased by 16.4 trillion won compared to the previous year, exceeding 81 trillion won. This is the third largest deficit on record as of November.
According to the 'Monthly Fiscal Trend January Issue' released by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 9th, the total revenue from January to November last year was 542 trillion won, an increase of 12.8 trillion won compared to the same period the previous year. The budget execution rate was 88.5%.
By category, non-tax revenue was 26.1 trillion won, up 1.3 trillion won from the same period last year. Fund revenue also increased by 20 trillion won, reaching 200 trillion won. A Ministry of Economy and Finance official explained, "In the case of fund revenue, the returns from the National Pension Service's overseas stock investments increased compared to the previous year," adding, "In November (last year), revenue increased by 3.5 trillion won."
On the other hand, national tax revenue decreased by 8.5 trillion won, recording 315.7 trillion won. Income tax increased by 1.4 trillion won and value-added tax by 7.3 trillion won, but corporate tax decreased by 17.8 trillion won due to the reflection of poor corporate earnings in 2023.
Total expenditure from January to November last year was 570.1 trillion won, an increase of 21.5 trillion won compared to the same period the previous year. Budget expenditure rose by 10.8 trillion won to 386.4 trillion won, and fund expenditure increased by 11.2 trillion won to 183.5 trillion won. By usage, National Pension benefit payments increased by 4.1 trillion won, government bond interest repayments by 3 trillion won, and retirement benefits by 1.8 trillion won.
The integrated fiscal balance, calculated by subtracting total expenditure from total revenue, showed a deficit of 28.2 trillion won for the cumulative period from January to November last year. After subtracting the surplus of 53.1 trillion won from the four major social security funds including the National Pension (social security fund balance) from the integrated fiscal balance, the management fiscal balance, which reflects the actual national budget, showed a deficit of 81.3 trillion won. This figure increased by 16.4 trillion won compared to the same period last year. As of the cumulative total in November, the management fiscal balance deficit was the third largest after 2020 (98.3 trillion won) and 2022 (98 trillion won).
As of the end of November last year, the national debt (central government debt) balance increased by 4.1 trillion won compared to the previous month and by 67 trillion won compared to the same month last year, reaching 1,159.5 trillion won. This is close to last year's original budget forecast (1,163 trillion won). A Ministry of Economy and Finance official said, "There was a large-scale repayment of government bonds in December (last year), so the debt is decreasing," and added, "It is expected that the debt can be managed within the forecast range."
The amount of government bonds issued last month was 1.4 trillion won. The total issuance of government bonds last year was 157.7 trillion won, recording about 99.5% of the annual total issuance limit. Including government bonds for individual investors (7 trillion won), the annual total issuance limit reaches 100%. The borrowing rate last month was 2.59%, down 0.31 percentage points from the previous month, and foreign investors had a net outflow of 2.9 trillion won in government bonds during the same month.
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