South Korea's national liabilities posted a fresh high last year, coming close to two-thousand-200 trillion won, as the government issued treasury bonds to fund COVID-19 handouts and other related needs. 

The government convened a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and reviewed the national settlement report for the fiscal year 2021, which included an assessment of the national debt.

National liabilities stood at two-thousand-196-point-four trillion won in 2021, up nearly eleven percent from 2020.

The confirmed liabilities grew 14 percent to some 818 trillion won after the government actively issued state bonds in the process of compiling two rounds of extra budgets.

The unconfirmed liabilities, including public employees' pension funds and military pension funds, climbed nine percent to roughly one-thousand-378 trillion won.

The combined liabilities is larger than the nation’s gross domestic product of some two-thousand-57 trillion won posted last year.

The national debt, or debts owed by the central and regional governments, came to 967-point-two trillion won last year, up by 120-point-six trillion won from a year earlier. The ratio of national debt-to-GDP grew three-point-two percentage points to 47 percent.

The consolidated fiscal balance, or the difference between the government's total revenue and expenditure, registered a deficit of 30-point-four trillion won. Spending, at 600-point-nine trillion won, outstripped revenue, which came in at 570-point-five trillion won.

The settlement report will be submitted to the National Assembly at the end of next month following an analysis by the Board of Audit and Inspection.