juyeol lee : bank of korea ’ s 66th anniversary speech by mr juyeol lee, governor of the bank of korea, at the commemorating ceremony of the bank of korea ’ s 66th anniversary, bank of korea, seoul, 10 june 2016. * * * dear fellow members of the bank of korea family, today marks the 66th anniversary of the bank of korea ’ s foundation. on this happy occasion i would like 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 during this time 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. our economy exhibited growth in the mid - 2 percent range last year, below our potential growth rate, and it has not shown any clearly marked recovery this year either. the trend of declining exports continues, the improvement in domestic demand such as consumption and investment has been unsatisfactory, and the sentiments of economic agents remain sluggish. consumer price inflation is also substantially below its newly set 2 percent target. to cope with these economic conditions, the bank of korea greatly increased the support provided under its bank intermediated lending support facility in march of this year, and yesterday cut its base rate to 1. 25 percent per annum. in view of domestic and external economic conditions, however, it seems unlikely that our economy can easily emerge from its trend of low growth and low inflation in the near future. first, it is difficult to expect any remarkable improvement in our exports, due to the delays in economic recovery in major countries and the consequent slowdown in growth of world trade. the euro area and japan have adopted quantitative easing policies and negative policy rates, but the concerns about possible long - term low growth there have persisted. the us economy has exhibited relatively solid growth so far, but given the slowing pace of its improvement in employment the markets expect the us federal reserve to delay its policy rate hike. and china, our largest trading counterpart, amid the slowing of its pace of economic growth is also shifting to a domestic demand - centered growth strategy. the structural factors limiting our domestic demand recovery persist as well, such as our low birth rate and population aging, the buildup in household debt, and excessive slack in manufacturing capacity. and given the corporate restructuring planned going

in the international discussions in this regard. fellow members of the bank of korea! in starting my first term four years ago i immediately launched the [UNK] management improvement t / f [UNK], which promoted the heightening of our work efficiency. since then we have continued our efforts to raise our staff ’ s sense of accomplishment and strengthen the capacity of our organization as a whole, but it is true that there are still inadequacies in our management practices that will have to be improved upon going forward. if we say that in operating our organization over the past four years we have put ‘ stability ‘ first, then during the next four years we will place our focus on ‘ change and innovation. ‘ to this end we will reassess, from the present day ’ s perspective, the various systems and practices related to internal management at our bank, and build upon the parts of our heritage that are worth preserving while proactively seeking to change practices that are either obsolete or in need of improvement. to speak a little more concretely here, we will have to aggressively clear away any inefficiencies in our work process, and heighten our productivity. precious time and resources should not be wasted in unnecessary processes or practices. through the delegating of authority to lower levels of staff, the simplification of our reporting process, and the minimization of task overlaps across departments, we will strive to enhance the efficiency of our work process and decisionmaking system. i think that this is also important in order that staff be able to strike a ‘ balance between work and life. ’ and if we want these efforts to bear the intended fruit, then smooth communication between high and low level staff members, between colleagues, and between departments is essential. together with this, through personnel management based on objective criteria for assessing performance and ability, we will ensure the reinvigoration of our organization. my fellow bank of korea staff! in circumstances where domestic and overseas economic conditions are severe like this, i think that the public expectations for the central bank are higher than at any other time. and in order for the bank of korea to be able to satisfy these public expectations, all staff will need to gather themselves, with new determination, and strive to fulfill their individual responsibilities. in connection with this, i think that at this point in time it is crucial to have an open attitude of willingness to listen to healthy criticisms or opinions from outside. i always stress that we must be ever vigilant against