The Bank of Korea Reviews News Sentiment Index: "Fast Statistics as a Leading Economic Indicator"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Eun-byeol] The Bank of Korea is developing an index that can diagnose the economic situation through media reports. Utilizing big data technology to analyze article content, the plan is to quickly assess the economic condition and use it as an indicator.

According to the Bank of Korea on the 25th, the Economic Statistics Department has been conducting a trial compilation of the weekly News Sentiment Index since the beginning of this year. The index is calculated weekly to verify its accuracy, and once the reliability of the index is confirmed, an official statistical approval will be requested from the Statistics Korea. However, as it is still under internal review, it has not yet been decided whether to apply for official statistics.

The News Sentiment Index aggregates articles about the economic situation reported in the media over a week by classifying them as positive or negative through "data mining" (the process of extracting useful information from large volumes of data). If the positive content in the articles exceeds the negative, the score is calculated above 100; if the opposite, below 100. It includes all fields such as policy, finance, industry, and real estate.

A Bank of Korea official explained, "After internally calculating the News Sentiment Index, we found that this index serves as a leading economic indicator." It is evaluated to diagnose the economic situation faster than various survey-based indicators such as the Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) and the Business Survey Index (BSI).

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