{"id":17832,"date":"2026-05-15T09:29:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T09:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/17832\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T09:29:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T09:29:17","slug":"lee-cites-imf-to-defend-korea-fiscal-expansion-rebuke-austerity-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/17832\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee Cites IMF to Defend Korea Fiscal Expansion, Rebuke Austerity Calls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President Lee Jae-myung cited remarks from the IMF to say South Korea\u2019s fiscal expansion is appropriate and sustainable.<br \/>\nLee criticized calls for fiscal austerity as populist and said the government\u2019s role is to keep the economy moving through investment.<br \/>\nProfessor Peter Howitt said South Korea is maintaining a sound fiscal stance while minimizing its budget deficit, and that its first-quarter economic growth rate was the highest in the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_feedSummaryContent-module-scss-module__B3djzW__newsAnalyticsTitle\">Forecast Trend Report by Period<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778570951_681_Indicator.png\" alt=\"Loading Indicator\" data-hide-on-theme=\"light\" class=\"h-full w-full object-cover\" style=\"animation:var(--animate-spin)\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778570951_925_Indicator-dark.png\" alt=\"Loading Indicator\" data-hide-on-theme=\"dark\" class=\"h-full w-full object-cover\" style=\"animation:var(--animate-spin)\"\/>See more mid- to long-term trend analysis<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/3be82dfb-c063-4676-83ab-bc4950137ea7.webp\" alt=\"Photo: Kim Beom-jun\" width=\"646\" role=\"presentation\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Photo: Kim Beom-jun<\/p>\n<p>President Lee Jae-myung has stepped up his defense of expansionary fiscal policy, brushing aside concerns about rising government debt.<\/p>\n<p>Early on May 15, Lee shared on X, formerly Twitter, a Korea Economic Daily article quoting an International Monetary Fund official as saying South Korea\u2019s fiscal expansion is appropriate and sustainable. \u201cThose who insist on unconditional austerity should read this article if they truly care about the country,\u201d Lee wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The article cited comments by IMF spokeswoman Julie Kozack on South Korea\u2019s government debt. \u201cKorea is maintaining a very prudent fiscal policy stance,\u201d Kozack said. \u201cAlthough there is currently some fiscal expansion, that expansion is a very appropriate measure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lee reposted those remarks on X. He also shared Kozack\u2019s comment that the policy is intended to support structural reforms ultimately aimed at raising South Korea\u2019s productivity.<\/p>\n<p>On May 12, Lee made a similar argument. He said the government\u2019s role is to keep the economy moving through investment and that the country should not fall into what he called the trap of populist austerity that deceives the public.<\/p>\n<p>Later on May 15, Lee met at Cheong Wa Dae with Peter Howitt, a Brown University economics professor and Nobel laureate. Howitt told Lee that what had impressed him in watching the South Korean government\u2019s policies was its ability to maintain a sound fiscal stance while minimizing the budget deficit.<\/p>\n<p>Howitt also taught Ha Joon-kyung, the senior presidential secretary for economic growth. Lee told him that, thanks to the professor\u2019s indirect guidance through Ha, South Korea posted the world\u2019s highest economic growth rate in the first quarter of this year.<\/p>\n<p>Han Jae-young, Hankyung.com reporter, jyhan@hankyung.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Lee Jae-myung cited remarks from the IMF to say South Korea\u2019s fiscal expansion is appropriate and sustainable.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[530,524,534,522,523,529,528,526,525,527,533,531,31,532],"class_list":{"0":"post-17832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-korea","8":"tag-bitcoin","9":"tag-bitcoincommunity","10":"tag-blockchain","11":"tag-bloomingbit","12":"tag-coincommunity","13":"tag-coininfo","14":"tag-coininvest","15":"tag-coinnews","16":"tag-coinreview","17":"tag-coinstats","18":"tag-cryptocurrency","19":"tag-ethereum","20":"tag-korea","21":"tag-solana"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}