Korean Recovery Strongest in Asia?

by Robert Koehler on November 12, 2009

Optimism is growing for Korea’s recovery from a sharp slowdown in the wake of the worldwide financial crisis and recession, largely thanks to the government-led stimulus measures and aggressive interest rate cuts by the central bank. Indeed, Asia’s fourth-largest economy has impressed many investors by its surprising rebound, especially compared with its regional peers.

“We think the consensus has consolidated behind the view that Korea’s is the strongest economic recovery in Asia ex-China,” said Tim Condon, ING chief economist for Asia.

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 WangKon936 November 12, 2009 at 9:27 am: Wow… a BusinessWeek article about Korea not written by Moon Ihlwan!!!
2 The Western Confucian November 12, 2009 at 10:06 pm: Stunned silence. A highly-respected publication says something good about the country that hosts us, and no one has anything to say. I’ll say something then.

We should be highly suspicious of these “government-led stimulus measures and aggressive interest rate cuts by the central bank.” Austrian Business Cycle Theory tells us these are the very same factors that led to the Meltdown of ’08.

Cutting interest rates is a just a sneaky way of printing money, creating the illusion of an upturn, which at some point must be corrected.
3 JW November 12, 2009 at 10:19 pm: What, then is the whole idea of a “pump priming” an economy out of a recession just a figment of Paul Krugman the Nobel Laureate’s imagination? Let’s just break up too big to fail investment banks and I’ll be happy.