South Korea will spend 38.4 trillion won this year on tackling the low birthrate and aging population as such trends can hurt Asia’s fourth-largest economy by reducing its workforce and driving up welfare costs, the health ministry said Friday.

南韓的保健福祉部週五表示，今年將投入38.4兆韓元因應低出生率和人口高齡化趨勢，以免因勞動力減少和福利成本提高而對身為亞洲第4大經濟體的南韓造成不利影響。

The Ministry of Welfare and Health said the budget for 2017, finalized during a meeting of a government evaluation committee, is set to increase 8.8 percent on-year. A large portion of the money will be spent on creating more jobs for young people. A lack of jobs has been cited as one reason why many South Koreans are not getting married, which is hurting birth rates.

該部指出，1個政府評估委員會於會議期間敲定2017年度相關預算，很可能年增8.8%，將撥出其中一大筆經費為年輕人創造更多就業。缺乏工作機會已被列為韓國人目前不結婚的原由之一，而不婚正使出生率降低。

Childbirth in South Korea dropped to a record low last year by reaching 406,300, down 7.3 percent or 32,100 births from a year earlier, according to a report by Statistics Korea. The figure marked the lowest number of newborns since 1970 when the statistics agency started compiling such data.

根據南韓統計廳報告，南韓新生兒人數去年創新低，降至40萬6300，年減7.3%或3萬2100人。此數據係自1970年該廳開始彙編這類資料以來最低。

Source article: http://iservice.ltn.com.tw/Service/english/english.php?engno=1094583&day=2017-04-16