Growing economic uncertainty...International credit rating agencies 'warned' one after another

[Anchor]
With the financial market fluctuating like this, the Korean economy is increasingly uncertain in the aftermath of the impeachment.

The government has said every day that it will do its best to stabilize the economy as much as possible, but downside risks are rising, with a series of warnings from international credit rating agencies.

Reporter Oh In-seok on the report.

[Reporter]
Deputy Prime Minister for Economy Choi Sang-mok met with National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik to discuss the handling of next year's budget, which was completely suspended after the emergency martial law crisis.

The budget is essential for maintaining people's livelihoods and foreign credibility, so I asked for a breakthrough in negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties.

[Choi Sang-mok / Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance: I asked (the chairman) to open the negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties (in relation to next year's budget).]

In response, Chairman Woo Won-sik said that the National Assembly's claim of responsibility was wrong.

The emergency martial law incident was an attempt to arrest the chairman of the National Assembly, the leaders of the ruling and opposition parties, and lawmakers, resulting in the impossibility of discussing the budget bill at the National Assembly.
But he strongly reprimanded what the Ministry of Economy and Finance claims as if it were the responsibility of the National Assembly that the budget was not being processed, according to Park Tae-seo, senior presidential secretary for public information at the National Assembly.

The government has held emergency meetings on macroeconomic and financial issues every day and is making all-out efforts to manage the economy in a stable manner.

He stressed that the market economy system is working well and that non-economic factors such as politics have had little economic impact in the medium to long term.

[Kim Byung-hwan / Chairman of the Financial Services Commission: The financial authorities will do their best to stabilize the financial system and maintain the external credibility of the financial sector]

However, uncertainty across the economy is growing.

Moody's, an international credit rating agency, recently warned that prolonged economic disruptions caused by South Korea's political tensions caused by the emergency situation could negatively affect the country's creditworthiness and foreign investors' preference for won assets.

Earlier, Fitch also said credit downside risks could increase if the political crisis drags on or if policy-making efficiency, economic performance or finances deteriorate due to ongoing political divisions.

[Jungsik Kim / Honorary Professor of Economics at Yonsei University: If political instability persists, national credit rating agencies are likely to downgrade their sovereign ratings]

The Korea Development Institute's KDI said in a report this month that the Korean economy appears to be expanding uncertainty amid construction-oriented economic improvement.

The deterioration of the international trade environment following the election of U.S. President Trump is likely to serve as a downside factor for exports.

This is YTN Oh In-seok.

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