[Economic Outlook] Korea's National Competitiveness Ranking Announced... Public Institution Management Performance Evaluation Released

Asia Economy DB=Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] This week, attention is expected to focus on South Korea's national competitiveness ranking. The government's evaluation results of public institutions' management performance will also be in the spotlight.

The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland will announce this year's ranking of South Korea's national competitiveness on the 16th. Last year, South Korea's national competitiveness ranking was 28th, dropping one place from the previous year.

The decline was influenced by a slowdown in growth rates of key indicators such as exports, investment, and employment, causing the economic performance category to fall by seven places, with three out of the four evaluation categories dropping compared to the previous year. The government plans to hold a National Competitiveness Policy Council on the 17th to discuss related measures.

Additionally, the Ministry of Economy and Finance will announce the results of last year's public institution management performance evaluation on the 19th.

In the 2018 public institution management performance evaluation, Korea Coal Corporation was rated as "very poor," and 16 institutions including Korea Electric Power Service (KEPS) were rated as "poor."

Among the 16 institutions rated as poor, eight heads of institutions such as Grand Korea Leisure (GKL), Korea Racing Authority, Korea Electric Power Technology, and KEPS, who had been in office for more than six months, received warning measures. Employees of three institutions including Korea Coal Corporation, Korea Racing Authority, and the Korean Film Council did not receive performance bonuses.

The Bank of Korea will release the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting held on the 28th of last month on the 16th on its website. At that time, the Monetary Policy Committee lowered the base interest rate by 0.25 percentage points from 0.75% to 0.5% per annum.

All six attending members agreed to the rate cut with no dissenting opinions, but attention is focused on how the members perceived and mentioned the deteriorating economic situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Particularly, interest is centered on the remarks of the newly appointed Monetary Policy Committee members Seo Young-kyung and Joo Sang-young. New member Cho Yoon-je was absent from the vote on the 28th due to issues related to stock ownership.

On the 17th, the Bank of Korea will also release the "2020 Q1 Corporate Management Analysis" (preliminary report). Based on disclosure data from 1,799 listed companies and sample surveys of over 1,500 non-listed companies subject to external audits, the outline of corporate management performance such as sales and operating profit for the first quarter of this year will be revealed.

Although the first quarter does not fully reflect the impact of COVID-19, it is estimated that the performance is not favorable compared to the same period last year.