Koo Yun-cheol vows to mobilize all fiscal, tax and financial tools to stabilize prices

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yun-cheol said Thursday that the government would "mobilize all available policy tools — fiscal, tax and financial — to focus entirely on stabilizing prices and easing the burden on ordinary people."

Koo made the remarks at a meeting in Seoul with related agencies and industry associations on food price stabilization, saying "stabilizing the cost of living is the government's top priority."

Attendees included the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the Korea Fair Trade Commission, the Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation, the Korea Institute for Animal Products Quality Evaluation, the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives, the Korea Food Industry Association, the Korea Consumer Agency and the Korea Consumer Organizations Council.

The meeting was convened to share a common understanding of the severity of the current price situation and to gather input from various sectors in developing effective stabilization measures. Participants discussed a range of options, including fiscal and tax support measures that consumers could feel on the ground.

Koo said the cumulative impact of energy price increases continued to linger even after the end of the war in the Middle East, and that uncertainties such as abnormal summer weather patterns also persisted.

He called on related ministries and agencies to cooperate actively in the field to maximize the price-reduction effects of government policies, including improvements to the retail distribution structure, multilateral price monitoring, public disclosure of price information and tariff quota measures.

The participating agencies and associations agreed to cooperate fully with the government's broad-based price stabilization efforts, including discount support and supply expansion for essential daily goods, relief on basic living costs, and the eradication of unfair practices such as price-fixing collusion.