South Korea’s ratio of sovereign debt to gross domestic product (GDP) rose last year due to an increased fiscal expenditure to counter the COVID-19 pandemic, government data showed Tuesday. The debt-to-GDP ratio gained 2.7 percentage points to 49.6 percent last year, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s report on the 2022 national settlement set to be submitted to the National Assembly. The sovereign debt, which measures the amount of bond sales and financial borrowing by the central and provincial governments, stood at 1,067.7 trillion won (811.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022, up 97.0 trillion won (73.8 billion U.S. dollars) from the previous year. The expanded debt came as the government unveiled two supplementary budgets of over 70 trillion won (53 billion U.S. dollars) to support small businesses and the self-employed damaged by the pandemic.