33^rd Meeting of Central Economic Response Headquarters

11^th Ministerial Meeting on the Korean New Deal

 

Government to Work to Keep Inflation in Check

 

 

Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki presided over the 33^rd Meeting of the Central Economic Response Headquarters held on April 7, which is also the 11^th Ministerial Meeting on the Korean New Deal.  DPM Hong discussed plans to respond to looming inflation, as well as Korean New Deal issues, such as making the country’s industrial complexes smart and green, and frameworks for smart shipping.  The deputy prime minister talked about the IMF World Economic Outlook report released the previous day at the beginning of the meeting.

 

The following is a summary of Deputy Prime Minister Hong’s keynote address.

 

IMF World Economic Outlook

 

According to the IMF report released April 6, the global economy is projected to get out of the downturn and jump to 6 percent growth this year, the outlook for the Korean economy revised up to 3.6 percent growth, a 0.5 percentage point increase from the January outlook of 3.1 percent.  The IMF predicting divergent recovery in global economies, Korea is placed among a few countries expected to rebound to the pre-pandemic level in 2021.  The country is also expected to be one of the major beneficiaries of strong global recovery, its exports and investment rising in line with the US economy picking up. 

 

Work to keep inflation in check

 

Consumer prices rose 1.5 percent in March due to rising international oil and grain prices, as well as limited supplies of farm products.  Although consumer prices will rarely rise beyond two percent this year, we will work in advance to keep them under control as inflation could restrain recovery. 

 

- Farm products and fisheries:  Work to increase supplies through imports, early harvesting and the release of strategic reserves

- Commodities and grains:  Use tariff quotas, streamline customs clearance and release strategic reserves

- Utilities and others:  Keep the prices of utilities and other public services reasonable, and provide restaurants with lower interest rate loans for their purchases of ingredients

 

Make industrial complexes smart and green

 

The government will work to address the problems of industrial complexes, energy-devouring and environmentally harmful, by making them smarter and greener. 

 

- Build 35 smart and green industrial complexes by 2030

- Build an RE100 data center as large as 100MW in the Saemangeum area[1] by 2029, and install solar and wind capacity of 7GW by 2030

- Revise laws to allow renewable energy transactions within a complex, as well as streamline new complex approval

 

Promote smart shipping

 

- Promote technology development for smart logistics, such as autonomous ships, ports and smart containers

- Provide services based on digital twins and marine navigation

- Work on the data economy for shipping and logistics

- Develop smart shipping professionals