[Economic Outlook] Support Payments Before Chuseok... Announcement of Corporate Sentiment

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The government will provide support funds for victims of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). An indicator to gauge corporate sentiment after COVID-19 will also be released.

Starting from the 28th, a special childcare allowance of 200,000 KRW each will be paid to 2.52 million preschool children and 2.8 million elementary school students, as reflected in the 4th supplementary budget.

Preschool children born from January 2014 to this month will receive the support funds directly into their child allowance deposit accounts without a separate application process.

Elementary school students will receive the funds through school banking accounts via their schools. Those who have not registered a school banking account or wish to receive the funds in a different account can also receive the payment in another account.

A special job-seeking allowance of 500,000 KRW for low-income and vulnerable youth will be paid starting from the 29th.

Small business owners will continue to receive the New Hope Fund (up to 2 million KRW), and special employment workers (teukgo) and freelancers will receive the emergency employment stabilization fund (50,000 KRW for first-time recipients) next week as well.

On the 29th, Statistics Korea will announce the industrial activity trends for August. This is an indicator that allows a retrospective look at real economic trends.

It is expected to reflect the impact of the COVID-19 resurgence following Liberation Day.

On the same day, the Bank of Korea will release the 'September Business Survey Index (BSI)'.

The BSI is a statistic that surveys entrepreneurs' judgments and outlooks on the current business situation. If negative responses outnumber positive ones, the index falls below 100.

The BSI, which plunged due to COVID-19, had maintained a recovery trend for four consecutive months from 53 in May to 66 in August, but the survey period was from the 11th to the 19th of last month.

Through this month's BSI indicator, it is expected to confirm how much the COVID-19 resurgence and strengthened social distancing measures have affected corporate sentiment.

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