this worsening income inequality. notably, in the era of the fourth industrial revolution, now in progress, there are concerns that the number of unskilled jobs could decline rapidly. however, we cannot go against the flow of globalization and technological innovation. and in this regard, international organizations such as imf and world bank recommend that we should pursue “ inclusive ” growth, which ensures that many people can share the benefits of growth. more specifically, creating more jobs, increasing household incomes and expanding the social safety net are recognized as relevant policies for promoting inclusive growth. we can talk more about this topic during session two today, on “ inclusive growth and employment. ” another challenge that we must tackle is population aging, which is progressing rapidly now in many countries. population aging is likely to undermine economic growth as it reduces the labor supply and saps aggregate demand at the same time. for korea, in particular, as the pace of our population aging is rapid, but our preparations for it insufficient, the negative effects of population aging on growth seem likely to be substantial. in response to this, proper policy measures need 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches to be put in place, to ease the rapid drop in elderly consumption while we at the same time strengthen social support related to child birth and child care. the theme of our first session today was chosen to be “ population aging ”, which i think may suggest just how important and urgent this issue is. finally, we need to also address the issue of financial imbalances. since the global financial crisis, international efforts to ensure financial stability have strengthened, as seen in the introduction of global regulatory frameworks such as the basel iii accord and the otc derivatives market reforms. however, the financial imbalances in major emes have accumulated further, driven by greater household and corporate debt leverage in these economies. financial institutions have been seeking high - risk, high - return investments, in response to their worsening profitability due to the low interest rate environment. in korea, household debt is already at a historic high, and has been growing faster than incomes, so that it poses a major risk to financial stability. i hope that we will obtain valuable insights related to this tomorrow, in the special session led by the federal reserve bank of new york, on ways of securing financial stability and the role of monetary policy. so far, i have raised three policy issues — income inequality, population aging and financial imbalances. besides these, of course, there

chang yong rhee : new year speech new year's speech by mr chang yong rhee, governor of the bank of korea, at the bank of korea, seoul, 1 january 2024. * * * my dear colleagues at the bank of korea, today we start our first day of work in 2024. let me begin by expressing my heartfelt gratitude to all of you for your best efforts at fulfilling your duties in your respective roles throughout the past year. i would also like to extend my appreciation to all the members of the monetary policy board for their dedication to the conduct of monetary policy. i also thank your families for their unwavering support for your hard work here. as we embark on the year of the blue dragon, i wish all of you will soar like a dragon, achieving success in all your endeavors. last year proved to be a busy period in developing the best possible policies and measures in response to the rapidly changing conditions both domestically and internationally. going through a time of high tension, such as significant policy rate hikes by central banks in major economies to curb inflation, followed by the silicon valley bank incident in the u. s. and the israel - hamas conflict, we were never able to let down our guard for even a moment. amid these heightened external uncertainties, the bank of korea conducted monetary policy with the top priority on price stability, while closely monitoring financial stability risks. we kept our base rate at a restrictive level of 3. 5 %, and adopted market stabilization measures to respond actively to unrest in the financial and fx markets, such as the large deposit withdrawals from mg community credit cooperatives. fortunately, the korean economy has recently started to show positive signs, such as a recovery in growth driven by exports and a sustained slowdown in inflation. major international news agencies have also highly commended the stable trend of economic indicators in korea, including inflation and employment. all of this was made possible thanks to our fellow koreans, who, even in challenging conditions, shared the burden of hardships. this year, global economic growth will likely slow in the aftermath of the continued monetary tightening, and global inflation will continue to moderate. we are also confronted with significant uncertainties in our external conditions, such as the fragmentation of global trade, geopolitical risks surrounding the middle east and eastern europe, and the possibility of abrupt changes in the international landscape depending on election results in major countries. last year, the imf projected the global economic growth rate for the next