South Korea’s central bank vowed to stabilize financial markets and highlighted the importance of “uninterrupted implementation” of key fiscal and economic measures, in its first statement since lawmakers voted to impeach South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.
“The Bank of Korea [BOK] intends to utilize all available policy instruments, in conjunction with the government, to respond to and avert an escalation of volatility in financial and foreign exchange markets,” the central bank said yesterday, addressing the fallout of Yoon’s failed martial law decree earlier this month.
Comparing the current situation with the impeachment phases of past presidents, the BOK said the latest case is “characterized by greater external challenges, such as heightened uncertainty in the trading environment and intensified global competition.”
Photo: AP
“Should these external factors overlap with domestic ones, their impact may amplify,” the BOK said, calling for an interventionist approach to righting the economy.
In the days after Yoon’s martial law declaration, the stock market plunged and the South Korean won at one point tumbled against the US dollar to the worst level since the global financial crisis erupted in 2008.
The central bank’s message comes after South Korea’s parliament on Saturday voted to oust Yoon from office, a decision that must now be reviewed by the Constitutional Court.
After the ballot, South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who serves as acting president, asked his advisers to step up their monitoring of financial markets, calling for “swift and bold” stabilizing steps if needed.
“Predictability of the political process is expected to improve going forward and financial market volatility is anticipated to reduce” following the impeachment vote, the central bank said in its statement.
South Korea’s main opposition leader Lee Jae-myung also underscored the importance of restoring normality. Lee proposed creating a bipartisan body involving parliament and the executive branch to discuss ways to stabilize the state and boost a flagging domestic economy.
“What we need to discuss right now is slumping domestic demand and the slowdown in the economy due to the shrinking fiscal role of the government,” Lee said at a news conference yesterday. “In order to solve this problem, I think we need to discuss the supplementary budget swiftly.”
The Constitutional Court has 180 days to rule on the validity of the impeachment motion passed on Saturday. If the court moves forward with removing Yoon, presidential elections must be held within 60 days.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
RSS