S.Korea’s Moon shakes up economy team, vows to keep policies
SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in has replaced his two top economic policymakers with currentmembersofthegovernment, his office announced yesterday, saying the changes were made to strengthen efforts to achieve a more equitable economy.
Moon has replaced chief presidential policy aide Jang Ha-sung and finance minister Kim Dong-yeon, the two most senior policymakers in charge of running Asia’s fourthlargest economy, the presidential office announced.
Presidential social policy aide Kim Soo-hyun will succeed Jang and veteran bureaucrat Hong Namki, currently head of the government policy co-ordination office, will be the new finance minister, the presidential office said.
“Today’s appointments were intended to more strongly promote efforts to build an inclusive nation in which everyone gets better off together,” Moon’s chief spokesperson Yoon Young-chan told a televised news conference.
The outgoing finance minister, who had served since June last year, had repeatedly clashed with Jang by calling for some adjustment of the president’s ‘income-led growth’ strategy. Critics say Moon’s signature policies, notably big minimum wage increases and a shorter work week, had backfired, with lower income earners – the intended beneficiaries – feeling the most pain as employers cut back hiring.
It was a bigger reshuffle than expected, but the appointment of their successors from within the government meant President Moon would pursue existing economic policies, which economists have said were hurting growth.
Markets gave a lukewarm reaction to what turned out to be a cosmetic and largely political event, with the country’s stocks and currency both weighed down as a hawkish US central bank deterred investors from holding riskier assets.
“There’s not a single sign of any change in policy coming, and instead, this means the president wants the government to do the same thing more strongly,” said Oh Suk-tae, chief Korea economist at Societe Generale. — Reuters