South Korea’s economic policies should focus on stabilizing consumer inflation and managing household debt as higher interest rates have made repayments more onerous, President Moon Jae-said on Tuesday, with just a few months left in office. READ:
Presiding a cabinet meeting, Mr. Moon said consumer price pressures are building which could hurt household finances at a time when interest payments for households are also higher following the Bank of Korea’s back-to-back policy rate hikes.
“Our utmost priority should be on stabilizing prices for staple goods for our citizens, and I ask for timely deployment of various policies to stabilize prices,” Mr. Moon said. South Korea’s consumer inflation hovered near a decade high in January and remained above the central bank’s 2% target for a 10A presidential election is set for March 9, and Mr. Moon will leave office on May 9, having served the single term permitted under South Korea’s constitution. —