South Korea's parliament approved a 2012 government budget bill late on Saturday, just half an hour before the new year began and after a near month-long delay due to disputes between the ruling and opposition parties, Reuters reported. The 325.4 trillion won ($282.5 billion) budget bill, little changed in size from the government's earlier proposal, aims to boost welfare spending in a year when two nationwide elections will he held. The government still aims to cut the fiscal deficit to 1.1 percent of gross domestic product in 2012 from this year's target of 2.0 percent by scaling down construction and other spending, the finance ministry said in a statement. Government debt is set to fall to 33.3 percent of GDP in 2012 from a projected 35.1 percent in 2011, although the absolute amount is set to rise slightly, the ministry said. Welfare spending is set to grow by 7.2 percent to 92.6 trillion won, or 28.5 percent of the total planned spending, outpacing a 5.3 percent rise in total spending. South Korea's single-chamber National Assembly missed the Dec. 2 deadline as opposition parties had boycotted in protest at the ruling party's ratification of the free trade pact with the United States in late November. The government expects the country's economy, the fourth-largest in Asia, to keep growing despite cooling demand from debt-stricken Europe but it kept growth in overall budget spending lower than its projected revenue growth.
