Southeast Region's Key Economic Keywords This Year: 'Inflation', 'Real Estate', 'Jobs'

BNK Financial Group CI.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Duyul] BNK Economic Research Institute, affiliated with BNK Financial Group, announced a research report titled ‘Looking Back at the 2022 Southeast Region Economy through Keywords’ on the 29th.

According to the report, the most notable economic keyword in the Southeast region throughout 2022 was ‘inflation.’ This is understood as a result of significant increases in producer and consumer prices due to global supply chain disruptions and improvements in consumer sentiment, which heightened difficulties for businesses and households.

The second place was ‘real estate,’ which shifted to a price decline trend after 27 months, and the third place was ‘jobs,’ selected as the number of youth employed dropped to an all-time low.

The fourth place was ‘automobile,’ which drew attention due to parts supply shortages and the U.S.’s domestic-focused subsidy payments, and the fifth place was ‘interest rates,’ which rose sharply due to monetary tightening amid high inflation. The keywords ranked 6th to 10th were ‘Russo-Ukrainian War,’ ‘small and medium enterprises,’ ‘eco-friendly,’ ‘exports,’ and ‘shipbuilding,’ respectively.

Among last year’s top 10 issue keywords, ‘online,’ ‘small business owners,’ ‘consumption,’ and ‘energy’ were excluded this year, but ‘inflation,’ ‘interest rates,’ ‘Russo-Ukrainian War,’ and ‘shipbuilding’ were newly included in the rankings.

The keywords in this study were extracted using text mining techniques, and the analysis targeted a total of 26,102 articles published on the economic pages of major regional newspapers in Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam from January to November.

In the expert survey forecasting the 2023 issue keywords, ‘real estate’ ranked first. As 50% of all interviewees pointed to it, the high interest surrounding the real estate market is expected to continue next year.

The second place was ‘interest rates,’ reflecting interest in the timing of rate cuts, and the third place was ‘economic recession,’ as concerns over economic uncertainty grew with major institutions repeatedly lowering economic growth forecasts for various countries.

The fourth place was ‘eco-friendly.’ As the importance of sustainable growth increases, carbon neutrality and ESG transitions at the national and corporate levels are gaining attention.

The fifth place was ‘inflation,’ which attracted high interest regarding its speed and magnitude of increase. Along with this, ‘expo,’ ‘jobs,’ ‘exports,’ ‘new airport,’ and ‘regional balanced development’ were included among the top 10 keywords.

Jung Youngdoo, head of BNK Economic Research Institute, said, “The Southeast region economy faced great difficulties this year due to high inflation and high interest rates,” adding, “Much effort and attention are needed for attracting the world expo, constructing a new airport, and regional balanced development to revitalize the local economy.”

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