Finance Minister promotes economy to Fitch, S&P
Deputy Prime Minister Yoo Il-ho met two major global rating houses on Friday, asking them to keep their “positive” stances in adjusting Korea’s sovereign rating.
According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Yoo, who doubles as deputy prime minister, met Fitch Ratings Global Head of Sovereign Ratings James McCormack in London and S&P Global Sovereign Chief Ratings Officer Moritz Kraemer in Frankfurt, before attending the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Germany.
Yoo explained the Korean government is promptly reacting to economic events in and outside of the country, despite its political uncertainties.
“Yoo stressed that the government is actively monitoring risks, including the U.S. interest hike; Korea’s trade issues between China and the United States; and household debt,” a ministry official said.
Yoo also said that Korea’s real economy is rebounding, with exports showing sharp growth and facility investment increasing for three consecutive months.
McCormack and Kraemer both said that Korea’s political uncertainty has been removed as the Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye and evaluated Korea’s effort in normalizing its state affairs as effective.
Meanwhile, Yoo will attend the two-day ministers’ meeting in Baden-Baden, Germany. His moves in the spa town are drawing keen attention, as he will seek to explain Korea’s position to his counterparts from the U.S. and China.
Yoo is set to meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. He is expected to explain that the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement has been mutually beneficial and the government is not manipulating its foreign exchange market.
However, it is not sure whether he will meet China’s Finance Minister Xiao Jie. If they do, their talks will be about China’s economic retaliation to Korea’s decision to deploy a U.S. anti-missile system.