juyeol lee : 67th anniversary of the bank of korea speech by mr juyeol lee, governor of the bank of korea, at the commemorating ceremony of the bank of korea ’ s 67th anniversary, seoul, 12 june 2017. * * * dear fellow members of the bank of korea family, today marks the 67th anniversary of the bank of korea ’ s foundation. i would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all those who served before us in the bank of korea over the years, devoting themselves to the development of our bank and the national economy, and to those who have supported and encouraged us as well. let me also express my compliments to each and every member of our current staff, for so faithfully carrying out the duties entrusted to you. although consumption still appears to be recovering only modestly, it is judged that the pace of growth in our economy is accelerating, as exports are increasing rapidly and investment is also showing favorable movements. as these trends continue, it is expected that the economic growth rate for this year will exceed the forecast in april. notably, if measures to expand fiscal expenditures to create jobs and for other purposes are implemented by the new government, then the pace of growth will accelerate even further. however, looking at the economic environments at home and abroad, there are still numerous potential risks preventing us from complacency about this positive growth outlook. if our trade relations with major countries become strained, owing to stronger trade protectionism for example, the negative impacts on our economy with its heavy dependence on exports can be high. additional rate hikes and the reduction of its balance sheet by the us federal reserve, as well as political uncertainties in major countries and geopolitical risks related to north korea, can also at times lead to increased financial market volatility and even work to limit our growth. on the domestic front, there are a variety of difficult structural problems causing the recovery in our economic vitality to slow. factors such as our low birth rate and population aging, intersectoral imbalances, and the dual structure in the labor market have been weakening our growth potential and the virtuous cycle in our economy. further, owing to delays in industrial advancement and in finding new drivers of growth, improvements in productivity and the creation of high - quality jobs are not being properly achieved. as household debt has continued to grow faster than household income for a long time, concerns are rising that household debt can constrain

chang yong rhee : the challenges of korean economy after covid19 - growth and stability opening address by mr chang yong rhee, governor of the bank of korea, at the bank of korea - korean economic association international conference 2022, seoul, 11 november 2022. * * * distinguished guests, i am very delighted to welcome all of you to bok - kea international conference. we are honored to host this conference jointly with the korean economic association. i would first like to express my sincere appreciation to professor lee jong - wha, president of the kea, and professor you hye mi, the host of today's conference, as well as our guests from abroad, professor james morley, wong chan yuan, joshua aizenman, yiping huang, and mr. robert subbaraman, head of global macro research at nomura. i would also like to welcome all the moderators, speakers, discussants and other participants. the theme of the conference is " the challenges of korean economy after covid - 19 : growth and stability. " if i was given this theme last year, a few long - term challenges korea is facing would have come to the fore such as low birth rate and aging population, risk of secular stagnation, pension and labor market reform, economic and geopolitical fragmentation resulting from tensions between the us and china, to name a few. as you are well aware, however, since i took office in april, global inflation has rapidly soared, and we are now busy in coping with high inflation. like many other major central banks, we systematically missed inflation forecasts after the pandemic. i can think of two major factors : first, the russia - ukraine war which elevated energy prices unexpectedly in the early part of this year, and second, the damaging combination of currency depreciation and higher energy prices from the second half of this year following faster monetary policy tightening in the united states. the korean economy is highly dependent on energy imports, about 25 % of total imports, and half of the inflation surge from 3. 6 % in january to 6. 3 % in july this year was due to the energy price surge. even though energy price decreased somewhat in the second half, significant depreciation of the korean won during this period made energy prices remain high and inflation persistent as energy imports are mostly invoiced in us dollars. it might sound like an excuse, but it was hard to predict oil and gas price changes