With a trade deficit of $590 million in December of last year and a cumulative deficit of $1.93 billion at the end of October, the country created a twin deficit system, ranking fourth in defense technology investment.
The Defense Technology Promotion Research Institute's '2021 National Defense Science and Technology Level Survey' announced on the 10th that Korea ranked fourth in defense R&D investment after the United States, China and the United Kingdom, and defense science and technology rose from joint ninth in 2018 to ninth alone.
According to the report, the artillery sector has risen to the fourth place in technological prowess after the US, Germany and Russia, and the government’s military expansion led to the export of 1 trillion won worth of self-propelled artillery to Australia and Thailand under the New Southern Strategy. .
The government plans to increase revenue by 31.5 trillion won from last year's national tax budget of 282.8 trillion won in July, followed by an additional 10 trillion won in excess tax revenue of 19 trillion won in November.
The Hankyoreh reported on the 10th that an official from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said on the 9th, "The year-end corporate tax and capital gains tax revenues came in more than expected, and an additional 10 trillion won in excess tax is expected to be generated than originally projected."
In the United States, new car sales in December last year were 12.5 million units on a seasonally adjusted basis, down 23 percent from the previous year, the lowest level in history, Bloomberg reported on the 3rd, citing six auto market research institutes.
The presidential candidates aggressively announced the addition of additional budgets in succession, and the won depreciated 1.1% against the dollar in the first week of the year. The Malaysian ringgit fell 1.0%, the Japanese yen fell 0.7%, the Chinese yuan fell 0.4%, and the Taiwan dollar rose 0.02%.
From the 15th to the 22nd, President Moon Jae-in will travel to three countries in the Middle East: the UAE, the largest arms exporter, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
The Blue House said, "This visit will serve as an opportunity to solidify the foundation for cooperation in not only traditional cooperation fields such as energy and construction infrastructure, but also in future promising fields such as health care, science and technology, marine water resources, hydrogen cooperation, and climate environment." work said.
Defense Minister Seo Wook visited Thailand and Guam, Singapore, two countries that sell weapons to the south, from December 19 to 22 last year to discuss defense-industrial cooperation plans.