| Title | Cheongju City Vows to Ease Inflation to Get the Economy Back on Track |
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| Writer | Cheongju |
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- In line with the central government, Cheongju City to go all out stabilizing prices with three measures -
Cheongju City pledged to overcome on-going economic downturn derived from high prices and restore the economy this year as soon as possible. In an attempt to walk in step with central government's policies, Cheongju will commence three major tasks: reforming the prices management system; stabilizing the livelihood of residents; and revitalizing the local economy. The city government is planning to actively pour its effort into stabilizing prices and restoring the local economy through implementing field-based countermeasures. ▶ Reorganization of comprehensive situation room on countering prices and revitalization of various conference bodies The city government has reorganized its comprehensive situation room on countering prices by adding 3 teams and 15 members to existing 7 teams and 25 members. The reshuffle, launched on Mar. 13, is slated to reinforce its role by monitoring and managing trend in prices and unfair trades as well as local public utility fees more closely. For good measure, the city government vowed to create policies aimed at stabilizing prices and boost participation from a private sector by holding its major consultative body Economic Policy Council and a Consumer Policy Committee, advisory bodies dealing with local public utility fees and prices, on a regular basis. Round-table meetings with suppliers, such as sellers of goods and service providers, will be arranged frequently in order to tackle inflation and build an environment leading to price stabilization. ▶ Support on public livelihood by providing helping hands to small businesses The world economy including Korea has dealt a heavy blow from high prices, high interest rates, high exchange rates, and a rapid raise in public utility fees. Even though the consumer price inflation rate in February has somewhat dropped compared to January, consumers are still suffering from high prices. Cheongju City is planning to freeze local public utility fees and enhance support measures for the underprivileged as well as small businesses. First, public utility fees, such as water charges and the price of plastic garbage bags will be frozen in order to relieve residents' economic burden and help private sector in reducing production cost. Second, a budget amount to KRW 69 million is allocated as a customized incentive to be given out in April in an effort to assist small businesses that contribute in stabilizing prices. In line with one of the pledges proposed during the 8th popular elections, the city government will continue its support project on providing loan interests of rearing funds for small businesses in Cheongju that started in 2022. As its new project this year, the city government has started supporting interests of loans to small businesses with low credit in tandem with Smile Microcredit Chungbuk-Cheongju Corporation. Third, a total budget of KRW 3.58 billion is slated to be executed in an emergency welfare support project designed to help livelihood of the underprivileged, including heating bill support. In the second half of this year, the city government will ease housing burden for newly-wed couples and youths through a support measure on providing interests on loans for jeonse (key money for yearly contracts). ▶ Reinforcement of fundamentals through overcoming economic slowdown and revitalization of the local economy Overall economic indexes projected gloomy figures as both the Federal Reserve in the U.S. and the Bank of Korea has implied an additional base interest rate hike and the International Monetary Fund has outlooked Korea's economic growth rate at 1.6% this year. The city government aims to concentrate on expanding domestic demand by promoting local consumption through Cheongju Pay and by incentivizing people to purchase local goods. In order to do so, the city government has prepared its four-step mandatory measures for all divisions in the government to sign contracts with local producers in priority so that more local goods can be purchased. The city government is planning to constantly push forward with raising awareness this year on purchasing local goods by building a local goods purchase support window within the city's internal administrative network and local small and medium businesses database. Furthermore, Cheongju City will bestow an award to the division highly contributed in making the best result. On-line stores on a direct trading of agricultural products and wholesale products as well as Cheongwon Life Mall are going to be operational so that many distributors can take advantage of such on-line stores, creating stable markets and lowering consumer price. In addition, the city government is planning to invest KRW 64 million on augmenting stores authorized to use Cheongju Pay QR-code and issuing a new transit card that can also be used as Cheongju Pay in an effort to boost local consumption. Spearheaded by public institutions, they will build an example for citizens on frequently using local traditional markets and small businesses. Such efforts are expected to encourage the locals to voluntarily go to traditional markets and mom-and-pop stores. |
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