"Real Estate Statistics Overestimated Due to Political Sensitivity"...Statistics Korea Says "According to Evaluation Procedures"

Rep. Yoo Kyung-joon: "Despite Various Criticisms, Housing Price Trend Survey Scores 98.6 in Statistical Quality Diagnosis"
Statistics Korea: "Excessive Criticism... No Reason to Be Cautious"

(Photo)

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] Statistics Korea has faced criticism for giving near-perfect scores to the Korea Real Estate Board's (formerly Korea Appraisal Board) "National Housing Price Trend Survey," despite pointing out its lack of realism. Statistics Korea responded by saying, "This is simply the result according to the evaluation process."

Yoo Kyung-joon, a member of the People Power Party and former head of Statistics Korea, issued a press release on the 6th stating, "Criticism that the housing price trend survey is difficult to reflect reality in terms of sample representativeness was confirmed in Statistics Korea's statistical quality diagnosis report," adding, "Despite such criticism, Statistics Korea gave a score of 98.6 out of 100 in the statistical quality diagnosis."

According to the 2020 regular statistical quality diagnosis report of the Housing Price Trend Survey obtained by Rep. Yoo, Statistics Korea pointed out issues such as ▲the survey sample being too small to guarantee reliability and having a large sampling error for representative samples, ▲lack of realism due to the weekly survey not reflecting actual transaction information, and ▲concerns about confusion caused by similar statistics being published by multiple institutions. However, Statistics Korea awarded the highest score of 5 out of 5 in detailed categories including 'Statistical Planning,' 'Data Collection,' and 'Statistical Processing and Analysis.' Additionally, 'Statistical Publication, Management, and User Services' received 4.8 points, while 'Statistical Design' and 'Statistical Foundation and Improvement' were given 4.7 and 4.0 points respectively.

Rep. Yoo criticized the generous scoring by Statistics Korea, claiming, "Statistics Korea failed to make accurate criticisms due to being cautious of the Blue House and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport." He emphasized, "Reflecting incorrect statistics ultimately led to flawed real estate policies."

Statistics Korea dismissed Rep. Yoo's claims as "results according to the quality diagnosis procedure," rejecting suspicions of being influenced by other ministries. A Statistics Korea official stated, "The statistical quality diagnosis is conducted through external experts following the prescribed procedures, and the scores were given accordingly, with shortcomings also pointed out during this process."

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