Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho had a meeting with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Senior Vice President Gita Gopinath on the 31st and said that the Korean economy would show signs of recovery in the second half of the a year.
Senior Vice President Gopinath visited Korea to expand communication with the main Asian member countries. This is the first visit to Korea by a senior vice president of the IMF in 11 years since David Lipton’s visit to Korea in 2012.
In reviewing the world economic outlook published on the day, Senior Vice President Gopinath said, “The global economy is expected to remain difficult this year, but domestic demand in major countries is stronger than expected , China reopening, and the mild climate. in Europe, compared to last October’s forecast. It was raised by 0.2 percentage points (P),” he explained. In terms of prices, he assessed that “the consumer price index has already passed its peak” and predicted that “2023 will be a turning point year for prices.”
While generally agreeing with the IMF’s diagnosis of the global economy, Deputy Prime Minister Choo said, “Korea’s first half is expected to be somewhat difficult, but the recovery trend will be strengthened in the second half thanks to the global economic recovery.” On this day, the IMF revised Korea’s growth rate to 1.7%, down 0.3% from last October.
Gopinath, Senior Vice President, said, “I appreciate the fact that Korea maintains consistency between fiscal and monetary policies.” We worked together and responded quickly.” At the same time, he diagnosed that the main challenge factor for the Korean economy is structural problems such as coping with medium to long-term changes in demographic structure.
Deputy Prime Minister Chu said, “We are making every effort to maintain a sound fiscal stance and manage household debt appropriately, while promoting exports and private-oriented investments to ensure engines of growth, and promoting labor, pension and education reforms to increase potential growth . rates.” We are also implementing policies to prepare for the future.”
Along with this, Senior Vice President Gopinath asked for the expansion of contributions to the Korea-IMF Technical Cooperation Fund. The Technology Cooperation Fund is a trust fund established in 2013 to provide technical assistance to low-income countries. In response, Deputy Prime Minister Choo replied, “We will positively consider expanding the amount of contributions considering the demand for competency development projects within the IMF and domestic financial conditions.” Also, at the joint Korea-IMF conference to be held this year, he asked for interest in the IMF president’s visit to Korea.
Correspondent Dahyun Choi da2109@etnews.com
