Bank of Korea reorganizes Economic Statistics Bureau and others to "Strengthen Central Bank Core Functions"

Organizational Restructuring Scheduled for Early Next Year
Economic Statistics Bureau Reorganized into Economic Statistics 1 & 2 Bureaus
Digital Currency Research Department Expanded to Digital Currency Research Office

The Bank of Korea announced on the 26th that it has carried out an organizational restructuring aligned with personnel changes in the first half of next year to strengthen the central bank's core functions in response to changes in domestic and international conditions.

Accordingly, the existing Economic Statistics Department will be reorganized into Economic Statistics Department 1 and Economic Statistics Department 2, and the Financial Operations Office will be expanded into the Financial Operations Department. The existing Digital Currency Research Division will be expanded into the Digital Currency Research Office.

The Bank of Korea stated that considering the importance of national income statistics and the implementation of the new national accounts system, it reorganized the Economic Statistics Department to oversee the compilation of real statistics such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and to enhance consistency across sectors. The current National Income General Team, Expenditure National Income Team, Distribution National Income Team, Input-Output Team, and National Balance Sheet Team under the Economic Statistics Department will be transferred to Economic Statistics Department 2, and a National Accounts Planning Team will be newly established.

Economic Statistics Department 1 will focus its capabilities on financial statistics such as monetary indicators, household credit, fund circulation, balance of payments, and overseas investment statistics, as well as on compiling inflation, corporate statistics, and economic sentiment indices. It will also strengthen the development of statistics using structured and unstructured data and the latest methodologies.

Economic Statistics Department 2 will handle the compilation of real statistics such as GDP, input-output statistics, and national balance sheets, and will focus on developing statistics related to the digital economy and satellite accounts to increase the usefulness of GDP statistics, as well as conducting research related to national accounts.

In addition, the Bank of Korea announced that it will expand the existing Financial Operations Office into the Financial Operations Department to perform expanded loan systems and custody operations and to improve the efficiency of treasury and securities system management. The existing Loan Collateral Operations Division will be expanded into the Loan Collateral Operations Team, the Securities Custody Division into the Custody Team, and a Treasury Bond Fund Team will be newly established.

To strengthen technological tasks and institutional research related to CBDC and to actively participate in cooperation with related organizations (government, National Assembly, etc.) and global discussions, the existing Digital Currency Research Division will be expanded into the Digital Currency Research Office. This department will also support the stable promotion of CBDC projects, including the Agora Project, a research project on cross-border payment infrastructure.