[Weekly Review] Government's Own Investigation Confirms 7 More LH Land Speculators... Begins Probing Family and Other Nominee Transactions

View of Gwangmyeong Siheung Project Headquarters of Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province. (File photo) [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] On the 11th, the government announced that it conducted a first-round investigation targeting employees of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) regarding the LH land speculation scandal, confirming a total of 20 suspected speculators. All 20 suspected speculators belong to LH. In addition to the 13 suspicious cases raised by civic groups, 7 more were identified through the government's own investigation.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun held a briefing at the Government Seoul Office in the afternoon and stated, "Land transactions were mainly concentrated in the Gwangmyeong and Siheung districts, and suspicious speculation cases were also found in other 3rd new town districts," emphasizing, "We will mobilize all laws and systems to fully recover speculative profits."

This investigation only confirmed cases where 'current' public officials conducted transactions under their real names. Transactions under aliases or borrowed names through family, relatives, or acquaintances were not investigated this time. The government will immediately begin a second investigation targeting employees of Gyeonggi and Incheon, local governments, and local public enterprises.

◆Hong Nam-ki: "Government Plan to Prevent Recurrence of LH Scandal"= On the 12th, Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, announced that the government will prepare and announce a plan to prevent recurrence related to the speculation allegations of LH employees. He particularly mentioned the possibility of illegal loans from banks as a background to this speculation incident and forecasted a large-scale investigation by supervisory agencies.

On the morning of the same day, Hong held the ‘Real Estate Market Inspection Related Ministers Meeting’ at the Government Seoul Office and said in his opening remarks, "This is only the beginning of the investigation." He repeatedly expressed his determination for investigation and punishment using terms such as ‘definitely,’ ‘from the start,’ ‘strongly,’ ‘exemplary punishment,’ and ‘full effort.’ He emphasized, "Taking the LH scandal as an opportunity, the government will devise all possible measures to eradicate real estate speculation and prevent recurrence, especially fundamental measures for public officials and the public service that must take the lead," adding, "We will prepare and announce the government plan as soon as possible."

The key points of the government plan under discussion include ▲preventive measures to stop speculation and illegal/unfair acts from being attempted in the first place ▲establishment of a system to detect such attempts if they occur ▲exemplary punishment measures for strong penalties once detected ▲and recovery measures to reclaim illegal and unfair profits beyond mere punishment.

◆OECD Mentions "Inflation Concerns" for the First Time... Raises Global Growth Forecast to 5.6% = The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) raised the global growth forecast to 5.6% while mentioning inflation concerns for the first time.

In its mid-2021 economic outlook released on the 9th (local time), the OECD highlighted 'inflation' as a major risk factor for the global economy and urged caution. The OECD stated, "There are signs of inflation such as recent rises in international raw material prices, oil prices, and major countries' government bond yields," emphasizing, "Especially as currency values decline, inflationary pressures may increase."

Concerns have also been raised that inflation expectations could eventually push up government bond yields, leading to higher loan interest rates. On the same day, the yield on the US 10-year Treasury bond rose to 1.5940, nearing the 1.6% level.

This year, South Korea's economic growth forecast was revised upward from 2.8% to 3.3%. The OECD predicted, "The Korean economy, along with the US and others, will recover to pre-COVID crisis levels within this year," adding, "Thanks to relatively limited COVID damage and a rapid recovery, the economy is expected to regain its pre-crisis scale within this year."

◆Exports Up 25% from 1st to 10th... Five Consecutive Months of Growth 'Positive Signal' = Exports from the beginning of this month to the 10th increased by more than 25% compared to the same period last year. This suggests that the export growth trend, which began in November last year, is likely to continue for five consecutive months through this month.

According to the export-import status announced by the Korea Customs Service on the 11th for March 1-10, export value reached $16.3 billion, up 25.2% ($3.28 billion) from the same period last year. Including this, the cumulative export value for this year recorded $109.1 billion, an increase of 12.5% ($12.09 billion).

The export performance from the 1st to the 10th was unaffected by the number of working days, as both last year and this year had 7.5 working days. The average daily export value rose 25.2%, from $1.74 billion in the same period last year to $2.17 billion in March this year.

The government plans to maintain and strengthen the recent export rebound to achieve $700 billion in exports by 2025. On the afternoon of the 10th, the government held the 4th Expanded Trade Strategy Coordination Meeting chaired by Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun at COEX in Seoul and jointly announced the ‘Future Growth Engine Expansion and Trade Structure Innovation Strategy.’ Considering that last year's total export value was $512.85 billion, this is a challenging target.

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