South Korea's welfare spending to exceed ?100t in 2014 budget

South Korea's welfare spending will likely exceed 100 trillion won about (US$92.4 billion) next year, with its ratio to the government's total budget rising to the highest level ever, the country's top economic policymaker said Monday. South Korea's Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok said that the scale of our investment in the welfare sector will likely exceed 100 trillion won for the first time, which would represent the largest portion of the total budget ever, according to South Korea's (Yonhap) News Agency. "We will push to spend more on welfare, education and culture next year than this year," he added. According to an earlier report, 52 government ministries and agencies have requested a combined 364.7 trillion won for their next year's budgets, up 6.6% from this year. Their budget requests for social overhead capital (SOC), however, declined 12.9% to 21.2 trillion won. This is in line with the government's efforts to save money amid concerns over a possible revenue shortage.