President Lee Jae-myung to personally explain next year's 821 trillion won budget

President Lee Jae-myung delivered a policy speech at the National Assembly on the 2nd, explaining the 2027 government budget proposal — the largest in history at 820.9 trillion won — and requesting its passage. This marks the president's fourth policy speech, following those in June last year (second supplementary budget), November last year (2026 budget), and April this year (supplementary budget for the Middle East crisis).

The government's budget proposal for next year includes the creation of a 160 trillion won Future Response Fund, which would use massive additional tax revenue generated by the semiconductor boom to invest in youth, growth engines, regional development, and education and talent.

In his speech, President Lee expressed his determination to address polarization through the government-led 'three key social policies' covering housing, jobs, and household finance, and urged the National Assembly to promptly review and pass the budget.

With the ruling and opposition parties putting forward differing budget logics, the 820.9 trillion won budget proposal will go through deliberation by the National Assembly's standing committees and the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts.

At the People Power Party's Supreme Council meeting on the 2nd, the party argued that 30 trillion won should be cut from the budget proposal and that surplus funds from the Future Response Fund should be used to repay government bonds. Jeong Jeong-sik, the party's floor leader, also urged President Lee to acknowledge the failure of his real estate policy and roll back the November 5 real estate measures.