The government has spent more than a third of its budget earmarked for President Moon Jae-in’s job creation initiative in the first quarter. 

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance reported on Friday that three-point-eight trillion won, which accounts for 35-point-eight percent of this year’s budget for job creation projects, was executed in the January-March period. 

The figure is above the quarterly target of 34-point-five percent. 

During a fiscal management meeting earlier in the day, Second Vice Finance Minister Kim Yong-jin emphasized active fiscal spending is necessary in responding to what he called a disastrous employment crisis. 

Meanwhile, the government executed eleven trillion won of the budget for social overhead capital-related projects in the first quarter, or 28-point-four percent of the yearly budget for those projects. The government aims to execute 59 percent of the SOC budget within the first half of the year.