The "emergency fiscal and economic order" that Lee Jae-myung mentioned at the Cabinet meeting on the 31st is a presidential power specified in Article 76 of the Constitution. In cases such as domestic unrest, foreign crisis, natural disaster, or calamity that could cause a grave crisis to the nation, the president can invoke fiscal and economic measures that are "minimally necessary" for public security and order, or issue orders with the same effect as relevant laws.
It is a legislative measure that backs the president's urgent fiscal actions and is only possible "when there is no time to wait for the National Assembly to convene." Since democratization in 1987, there has been only one instance of a president actually invoking the emergency fiscal and economic order power. In Aug. 1993, then-President Kim Young-sam invoked "Emergency Fiscal and Economic Order No. 16" to implement the real-name financial transaction system. Before democratization, in 1972, President Park Chung-hee invoked an emergency order, saying it would eliminate corporations' debt burden.
It is not the first time Lee has mentioned the emergency fiscal and economic order power. In Feb. 2022, when Lee, then the Democratic Party of Korea presidential candidate, was campaigning on the street, he said the government should take responsibility for compensating the losses of self-employed people and small business owners hit by COVID-19, and pledged that upon election he would either ▲ draw up an emergency supplementary budget or ▲ invoke the emergency fiscal and economic order power.
In 2020, when he was Gyeonggi governor, he also called on then-President Moon Jae-in to invoke the emergency fiscal and economic order to swiftly execute the budget for paying "disaster relief funds." At the time, Lee, as Gyeonggi governor, posted on Facebook, saying, "It is virtually impossible to convene the Assembly before the general election, but swift action is needed," and "We must invoke the emergency fiscal order power, which has the effect of law."
Lee raised the possibility of invoking the emergency fiscal and economic order power again because of the energy supply and high oil price crisis stemming from the Middle East situation. At the Cabinet meeting that day, Lee said, "The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has collectively lowered growth forecasts for major countries this year and warned that oil prices could soar to $135 in the second quarter of this year," adding, "If urgent, we could use the emergency fiscal and economic order specified by the Constitution. Swift and bold action is needed."
Since the 13th, the government has been enforcing a price ceiling system that caps the supply price of refineries to gas stations, but given Korea's high external dependence on energy, even stronger measures could be considered.