Asia

There are few areas about which there is a greater range of opinions among international monetary experts than the issue of exchange rate regimes. Eminent economists can be found who…

In 2005, the Korean government implemented a number of new financial policies. Of those, two policy measures deserve special attention because of their potentially significant impact on domestic financial markets.…

After two years of sluggish growth, the Korean economy is now recovering. Economic activity began to revive in the early part of 2005 and accelerated throughout the year, reaching an…

The Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) and the Korea-European Union Free Trade Agreement (Korea-EU FTA) are the major FTAs for the Korean economy. Although both FTAs share many similarities,…

When Kim Jong-il died in 2011, the world held its breath as North Korea entered uncharted waters. No other communist dictatorship in the last century – for that matter no…

On June 25, 1950, North Korea launched a surprise invasion of South Korea and started a war that is still technically ongoing. But it was – as North Korea’s Kim…

The North Korean economy is changing – we know this because of widely reported growth of private markets since the famine of 1990s. But black markets and illicit activities are…

In May, The Korean-born Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin was named The National League Pitcher of the Month. When you think of Asians and baseball, you might think first…

During the week from May 28 to June 2, North Korea released over 1,000 large balloons across the demilitarized zone (DMZ) into South Korea. The balloons carried payloads of manure, cigarette butts, used batteries, cloth and plastic fragments, and lots of scrap paper (including used toilet paper). One report said that even dirty diapers were…

Questions of whether the K-pop market has peaked are hardly new. Concerns about market oversaturation have been raised since the inception of the third generation in 2012 when the number of groups that debuted annually more than tripled. New bands from industry powerhouses are not making the expected impact in sales, and there has been…

The Ninth Korea-Japan-China Trilateral Leader Summit, hosted in Seoul on May 27, marked the first meeting since the annual event went on hiatus after 2019. Amidst a shifting global economic order, its proclamations affirmed continued trade relations with China by Korea and Japan and brought a new sense of dynamism to economic cooperation among the…

The semi-annual OECD Economic Outlook released in May projects that global GDP growth will remain around 3 percent in 2024 and 2025, shown below in Figure 1. The report’s outlook reflects the continued impact of tight monetary conditions. Nevertheless, the report cites several positive trends, such as falling inflation and improving private-sector confidence. With unemployment…