Lee says need for extra budget to support small business owners, firms amid Mideast crisis

▲ President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on March 10, 2026. (Yonhap)

Lee-Mideast crisis

Lee says need for extra budget to support small business owners, firms amid Mideast crisis

By Kim Eun-jung

SEOUL, March 10 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung said Tuesday that it is time to consider drafting an extra budget to protect small business owners and companies hit by surging fuel prices and inflation stemming from an intensifying war in the Middle East.

Lee told a Cabinet meeting that "additional fiscal support is needed" to provide financial support for small business owners and companies that have been battered by a jump in fuel prices.

"I think that we are in a situation where we have to make an early supplementary budget," Lee said.

Lee also called for a swift launch of a fuel price cap system and a review of other support measures to curb oil prices and inflation as South Korea seeks to minimize the economic fallout from the intensifying crisis in the Middle East.

"Additional financial and fiscal support, including the enforcement of an oil price cap, adjustments to energy taxes and direct assistance to consumers, should also be reviewed swiftly," Lee said during a Cabinet meeting.

"We should mobilize all available resources to minimize the impact of external shocks on people's livelihoods, the economy and industry," he added.

If implemented, it would mark the first time since 1997 that South Korea has enforced the system, using a provision in the Petroleum Business Act that allows the industry minister to designate a maximum sales price when oil prices fluctuate sharply and threaten economic stability.

Lee raised concerns over the growing burden of soaring fuel costs on various sectors, such as freight transport, parcel delivery services and greenhouse farming, and instructed officials to seek ways to reduce their energy bills.

"The most important task is price stabilization," he said, calling for "swift and preemptive" responses to ease market jitters.

Lee also ordered the government to review additional measures to evacuate South Korean nationals remaining in the Middle East, including mobilizing chartered flights and, if necessary, military aircraft, while expediting overland evacuations to nearby safe countries.

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