This Week's Consumer Prices and International Balance Announcement... Discussions on Revising and Supplementing Real Estate Policies Including Loan Relaxation

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[Asia Economy Reporter Jusangdon Joo] This week, the latest statistics on consumer prices and the international balance of payments will be released. The government will continue discussions on revising and supplementing real estate policies, including easing loan regulations.

The Statistics Korea will announce the consumer price trends on the 4th. It is expected that the consumer price index for April will be at a relatively high level of around 2%. This is due to the low inflation rate in April last year acting as a base effect, high prices of agricultural and livestock products, and rising international oil prices, which have also caused a significant increase in industrial product prices. In March, the consumer price index rose by 1.5%, marking the highest increase in one year and two months.

The Bank of Korea will release the "March Balance of Payments (provisional)" on the 7th. Previously, the provisional current account balance for February recorded a surplus of $8.03 billion (approximately 9.0056 trillion KRW), maintaining a surplus trend for ten consecutive months. This was due to a sharp rise in shipping and air freight indices and increased dividend income. Given the recent surge in imports, attention is focused on whether the surplus in the goods balance within the current account has decreased.

Discussions on revising and supplementing real estate policies are also expected to gain momentum gradually starting next week.

From the 3rd, short selling will be allowed again in the stock market for the first time in one year and two months. The eligible targets for short selling are the components of the KOSPI 200 and KOSDAQ 150 stock indices. Financial authorities decided to partially resume short selling on the 3rd after banning it for six months starting in March last year to prevent a sharp stock price decline amid the spread of the COVID-19 crisis, extending the ban twice before this partial resumption.