概算要求は117兆円超 過去最大［2024.8.30］

政府の２０２５年度一般会計予算で、各省庁の概算要求総額が１１７兆円を超える見通しになった。２４年度の１１４兆３８５２億円を上回り、２年連続で過去最大を更新する。年金や医療などの社会保障費や防衛費、国の借金（国債）の元利返済に充てる国債費が膨らんだ。

　財務省への要求総額が１１０兆円を超えるのは４年連続となる。各省庁の要求は３０日が事実上の期限となり、財務省は９月上旬にも集計結果を発表する。

社会保障費は高齢化に伴い増加し、厚生労働省の要求額は過去最大の３４・２兆円となる。防衛費も２３年度から５年間の防衛費総額を４３兆円程度と定めた防衛力整備計画に基づき、２４年度当初予算の７・９兆円から大きく増える見通しだ。
　財務省は２９日、国債費が２８兆９１１６億円になると発表した。当初予算ベースで過去最大の２４年度（２７兆９０億円）から２兆円近く膨らむ。市中金利上昇で、国債の利払い費を算出する際の想定金利を年２・１％と２４年度当初（１・９％）から引き上げ、概算要求段階では９年ぶりに２％以上としたことなどが影響した。
　概算要求は、物価高対策や賃上げ促進などには金額を示さない「事項要求」も認めている。年末に向けた予算編成で金額が膨らむ要因となる可能性がある。

　　
■英訳　
In the government’s general account budget for the 2025 fiscal year, the total amount of budget requests from various ministries is expected to exceed 117 trillion yen. This surpasses the 114.3852 trillion yen requested for the 2024 fiscal year, marking a new record high for the second consecutive year. The increase is largely due to the rising costs of social security, such as pensions and healthcare, as well as defense spending and debt servicing costs for national bonds (including interest payments and principal repayments).

This will be the fourth consecutive year that the total budget requests to the Ministry of Finance exceed 110 trillion yen. The deadline for budget requests from the ministries is effectively the 30th of the month, and the Ministry of Finance plans to announce the aggregated results in early September.

Social security costs are increasing due to the aging population, and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's request is expected to reach a record 34.2 trillion yen. Defense spending is also projected to rise significantly from the initial 7.9 trillion yen budgeted for the 2024 fiscal year, in line with the defense capability enhancement plan, which sets a five-year defense budget total of approximately 43 trillion yen starting from the 2023 fiscal year.

On the 29th, the Ministry of Finance announced that debt servicing costs would reach 28.9116 trillion yen, nearly 2 trillion yen higher than the previous record of 27.009 trillion yen in the 2024 fiscal year. This increase is influenced by the rise in market interest rates, which led to the assumed interest rate used to calculate bond interest payments being raised to 2.1% from 1.9% in the 2024 initial budget, marking the first time in nine years that it exceeded 2% at the budget request stage.

The budget requests also include "item requests," which do not specify amounts but cover areas like inflation countermeasures and wage increase promotion. These could potentially lead to further increases in the budget as the final budget is formulated towards the end of the year.

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