South Korea's tax revenue may fall below an earlier estimate this year amid an economic slowdown, the finance minister said Friday.
Last week, the finance ministry said the tax revenue fell 15.7 trillion won (US$11.9 billion) in the first two months of 2023 on-year over the slump in the real estate and the securities markets.
The ministry earlier expected this year's tax revenue to reach 400.5 trillion won.
"It is highly likely that (the tax revenue) may fall below the original estimate," Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho told reporters during his visit to Samsung Electronics Co.'s chip plant south of Seoul.
Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho, signs a visitor's book at Samsung Electronics Co.'s production line in Pyeongtaek, 65 kilometers south of Seoul, on April 7, 2023, in this photo provided by the finance ministry. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
Touching on inflation, Choo said the country's consumer prices will gradually fall down the road and may reach the 3 percent level in April and May.
Consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, rose 4.2 percent last month from a year earlier, slowing from the rise of 4.8 percent tallied in February, a report from Statistics Korea showed earlier. It marked the lowest level since 4.1 percent growth tallied in March 2022.
Source: Yonhap News Agency