Tightening even on electricity bills... Worries eased with a single lottery ticket

A Bitter Glimpse of the COVID-19 Recession

Increase in Companies and Households Delinquent on Electricity Bills
Energy Consumption Decreased by 3.6% Compared to Last Year
Lottery Sales Reach 2.6 Trillion Won... Highest in 15 Years

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] As the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) accelerates the economic downturn, lottery sales have surged and the number of companies and households delinquent on electricity bills has significantly increased. This reflects a facet of the recession caused by COVID-19.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance's Lottery Commission on the 16th, lottery sales in the first half of this year totaled 2.6208 trillion won, an 11.1% increase compared to the same period last year. This is the largest scale since the Lottery Commission began disclosing lottery business performance for the first half of the year in 2005. Lotteries are considered recession-type products that sell better when the economy is bad. Especially in the first half of this year, as the economy worsened due to the COVID-19 crisis, it is interpreted that more people bought lottery tickets hoping for a windfall.

The economic downturn caused by COVID-19 also led to an increase in households delinquent on electricity bills. According to data received by Koo Ja-geun, a member of the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Business Committee from Korea Electric Power Corporation, as of the end of July this year, the number of customers delinquent on electricity bills was 798,000 households, with arrears totaling 146.3 billion won. Considering that the total number of delinquent households for the entire year was around 700,000 households?636,000 households (75.7 billion won) in 2015, 705,000 households (86 billion won) in 2016, 751,000 households (98.2 billion won) in 2017, 760,000 households (127.4 billion won) in 2018, and 757,000 households (139.2 billion won) last year?the number of households and companies behind on electricity bills has significantly increased this year. The number of households whose electricity was cut off due to nonpayment reached 82,000 as of July.

Energy consumption, one of the indicators showing the real economy situation, sharply declined. According to the Energy Statistics Monthly Report by the Korea Energy Economics Institute, the final energy consumption from the beginning of this year to June was 112.554 million TOE (tons of oil equivalent), down 3.6% from the first half of last year (116.747 million TOE). This is due to a significant contraction in production activities such as industry and services. Final energy consumption refers to energy used in the industrial, transportation, household, and commercial sectors, including petroleum, coal, liquefied natural gas (LNG), nuclear power, electricity, and solar power.

Earlier, the Korea Energy Economics Institute projected in its "2020 First Half Energy Demand Outlook" released in July that energy consumption would decline for the second consecutive year. Considering the resurgence of COVID-19 and the prolonged monsoon season, the annual decrease is likely to be even greater.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.