Person
South Korean economic official serving as Minister of Economy and Finance and Deputy Prime Minister, overseeing fiscal and financial policy.
Seoul wants a services framework law passed this year by excluding healthcare, the issue that has stalled the bill since 2011. Three of the four bills pending in the Assembly already use that carve-out, so the test now is a floor vote.
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South Korea will put 1,000 trillion won of fiscal and financial support into its K-GX green plan through 2035, alongside 220 trillion won of private projects. Spread over ten years, that is 100 trillion won a year from the state against 22 trillion won from companies.
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Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il said Korea will scrap on-site rules blocking corporate investment, including the permit wait on a 4 trillion won Ulsan EV plant. Seoul's bet is that faster permits can turn a chip-led upturn into investment that outlasts it.
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Korea swapped two of three projects in its $200 billion U.S. plan for reactors and Alaska LNG, ministry documents obtained by an opposition lawmaker show. Neither went through the feasibility study the originals had, and the only price on the LNG leg is Donald Trump's $54 billion.
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Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il has made Korea's K-shaped divide his ministry's second-half priority as chips lift growth to about 3%. He has pledged all available fiscal resources for housing, jobs and consumer finance to produce results the public can feel quickly.
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South Korea exported a record $120.94 billion in September, up 83.5%, with chips supplying $60.3 billion. A $1 trillion year now needs only about $62 billion a month, so the open question is how much of the chip surge is price.
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South Korea cut October Treasury bond issuance by 5 trillion won and plans 3.5 trillion won of buybacks as US 10-year yields hit their highest since 2002. Both steps manage supply, so the level of won yields still depends on what US Treasuries do next.
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South Korea's Financial Services Commission proposed rules on October 1 letting stocks, bonds and funds trade as tokens from February 4, 2027. Comments close November 11, while bills from both main parties would push the January 1 crypto income tax back as far as 2030.
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Britain's 30-year gilt yield touched 6.02% on Oct. 1, the first G7 long yield above 6% since Italy's in 2012, with the US 10-year at a 24-year high of 5.34%. Governments pay these rates on debt they roll over or newly issue, so the bill depends on how long yields stay up.
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Seoul will cut permit time for Hyundai's 4 trillion won Ulsan EV rebuild to 12 months from 40, about half the value of a 7.9 trillion won fast-track package. The listed project figures reach that total without the chip-fab contracting change SK hynix sought, a rule Seoul plans to change next year.
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Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il, six days in office, agreed with Bank of Korea Governor Shin Hyun-song to watch four linked markets as one risk. The pact runs through meetings that already exist, so its main effect is to tell investors how Seoul will judge a move in any one market.
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Finance and Economy, Land and Infrastructure and SMEs all change hands inside a ten-post announcement. The opposition has already named the Justice nominee as the fight that will set the hearing calendar.
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Lee Hyoung-il told the National Assembly that virtual assets belong in the other-income category and that the National Tax Service will publish the operative rules by the end of this year, while capital gains taxation of securities waits for calmer markets.
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A petition for a two-year delay reached the National Assembly's Strategy and Finance Committee with 51,004 names, and the finance minister nominee has told the committee that starting the 22% levy in January 2027 is desirable.
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Semiconductor exports and chip investment took the OECD's 2026 forecast for South Korea from 1.7% in March to 3.7%, the largest upgrade in the G20. Korea's own institutions sit half a point lower, at 3.2%.
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Lee Hyoung-il used his first day as finance minister to commit to a Korea Investment Corporation account that buys shares in chipmakers and AI firms, and the ministry has told parliament about 1 trillion won is available for it next year.
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The National Assembly's finance committee took its first briefing on Korea's $200 billion US investment behind closed doors, and the opposition's committee liaison said two hours of questions cannot test whether the deal is commercially sound.
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