for this week's movers and shakers we take a look at the economic prospects for this year
the pandemic is still not over and uncertainties still remain but what can we expect in 2022 for
more we have professor xin sang hip from kyung hee university and the studio so professor shin
welcome to the program thank you so first of all uh what's your forecast for south korea's economic
growth this year well i think it would be about three percent as you know very well last year
the economic growth rate was four percent but considering the internal and external situations
facing the korean economy i think that the korean economy could grow a little bit lower than the
previous years and last year south korea's exports jumped to an all-time high trade volume largely
thanks to strong demand for semiconductors and more the country is now the world's eighth largest
trader so what's your outlook for this year well i think the um actually the the total exports last
year exceeded 640 billion dollars so korea remain as the seventh place in uh the global ranking
for experts of course as i already explained in korea is the eighth largest traders in the world
in terms of the exports korea performed very well last year actually we have to think about how we
could achieve such uh the uh our largest amount of experts mainly because of the contribution of
so-called key industries such as shipbuilding industries and semiconductor industries
and automotive industries on the top of these industries even the agricultural and fisheries
and cosmetic industries contributed a lot to the economic growth in korea last year
so why explain these ones in these things because that i mean to think about the economic growth
in 2020 and then korean trade we have to expect the contribution of these industries
dcm in 2022. for your reference the in the memory chips uh industry korea take the first place
with the 58.9 market share in global market share i think those trends should be continued
and then how about automotive industries in 2021 korea was fifth largest exporter for automotives
i think uh the automotive the industries this year will perform i mean work continuously very well
and how about ship building industries well very recently that there was a report that the in terms
of shipbuilding uh all the amount the korea lost the first place i mean chinese building industry
took the first first place but last year our shipbuilding industry did a very good job as well
uh if i give you some explanation from the january to uh the uh november the korean shipbuilding
industries had the most orders for eco-friendly and the lng ships order so i think this year
not big uh changes i do expect in the ship building industries so these industries will
be the engine for the economic growth in korea in 2022 but the the point we have to consider is
the uh unfavorable external circumstances uh in the global market i mean for the korean economy
omnichrome which is the corporate 19 variant is widely spread uh every corner of the global
community so i think that will be a uh the uh one of the most serious threats to the global
economy i mean which is right now recur showing the recovering trends but because of the uh spread
of omnichrome i think the global economy can be uh the dow i mean they kept in bad shape so i think
that is one of the most important point which i have to which we have to consider about
and another one is the you know for the korea does not have uh uh abundant natural
resources so we are exposed to the some some threats caused by the unstable supply chain
we have to import many many uh raw materials from overseas by using these raw materials we made
we produce products but we cannot the reflect the increase input needed for the inputs to
the at the end good user prices because uh you know to maintain the price competitiveness in
the global market but anyway the increase of the raw materials such as oil prices
it can be a negative factor for the korean experts and the uh also the uh the inflation threats i
mean that is one of the potential threats to the korean i mean in the domestic the market in in
korean economy so because in these kind of things there are so many variables so i do think that
we will maintain the dynamism in our experts but we have to very careful uh make efforts
to overcome such a kind of the potential threats all right professor and before you go
watchers say slow growth and inflation are likely to hamper the economy this year
so the pandemic is still not over like you said so what are the risks and how should the authorities
respond well i think the government should have to put the first priority to maintain the dynamism
in our exports i mean prevent the economy to be slow uh to be slowed because you know the korean
economic structure is heavily rely on external relations that means we have to uh keep on
uh the increase our exports in in the global market we have to keep on uh increase our exports
that is the one of the most important uh things for korea to maintain the dynamism in our economy
so the korean government should have to uh the help the the key industries which i explained just
before to maintain their competitiveness in global market on the top of this kind of efforts the
korean government also tried to help the uh the new korean the corporations to be competitive in
global market by uh through those kind of experts we can have the some dynamism in our economic
development in the year 2022. at the same time the korean government should make every efforts
to uh the uh uh control the inflation or to create new jobs i mean that will be very important
because that it is related to domestic consumption last december for the first time i mean in last
year and the second half of last year the consumer sentiment uh index or we could consumer compete
sentiment index fell so it means that the we have to care more about the domestic consumption
domestic consumption is very important so to keep the uh i mean revitalize this lowdown
domestic consumption the government should make every efforts to provide more jobs to
the people particularly youngsters well besides these two experiments the two
things there are many other things but i do put the first priorities on these two policies
as the top policies for the government to maintain the uh the dynamism in our economy in 2022.
all right professor xin sang here from university many thanks for your insights thank you