South Korea's parliament on Saturday approved a 217.5 trillion won ($158.9 billion) state budget for next year, laden with spending to create jobs and steer the export-driven economy through the global financial crisis.
The ministry said the government will lay out 60 percent of the budget in the first half of next year.
The approved budget, up 11.5 percent from 2008, excluded public funds under the government's direct control.
Presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said in a written statement that President Lee Myung-bak will hold a meeting with economy-related ministers on Sunday to discuss ways to carry out the budget ahead of schedule to revive the economy.
Parliament had missed the Dec. 2 constitutional deadline to pass the budget but it typically approves the plan just ahead of a Dec. 31 deadline.
Lawmakers have only approved a handful of the hundreds reform measures proposed by President Lee Myung-bak that include privatising state-run firms, reforming pension system and making it easier for companies to hire and fire workers.
Lee came to office in February looking to fundamentally change the world's 13th largest economy by modernising industry, expanding consumption and making the labour market more efficient so that South Korea could better compete with regional rivals such as China and Japan.
But infighting in his faction-ridden, conservative Grand National Party has delayed his reform agenda as well as his call to approve a sweeping free trade deal with the United States.
The liberal opposition has said his programmes offer more benefits to the wealthy than to the working class and the poor.
The global slowdown and weak domestic demand has increased the risks for an economy the central bank says is expected to grow only 2 percent next year, compared with 5 percent in 2007.
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