Global Issues Highlighted by Companies This Year... 'Supply Chain Problems Worsen' 'High Interest Rates'

Hankyung Association's '2024 Global Issues' Survey
Responding Through New Business Discovery and Diversification
"Various Government Supports Needed"

The major global issues identified by leading domestic companies this year are the ‘intensification of supply chain problems’ and the ‘prolonged high interest rate trend in the United States’.

According to the ‘2024 Global Issues and Response Plans’ survey conducted by the Korea Economic Association (HanKyungHyup) from December 4 to 18 last year targeting 122 member companies and announced on the 8th of this month, 23.0% of respondents cited ‘intensification of global supply chain problems’ as the global issue most affecting our economy this year.

[Provided by Hankyung Association]

‘Prolonged high interest rate trend in the United States (18.0%)’ and ‘prolonged war and expansion of geopolitical conflicts (17.2%)’ were recorded at similar levels, followed by ‘US-China conflicts and increased necessity for decoupling from China (14.8%)’ and ‘strengthening of protectionism (8.2%)’.

Regarding US-China conflicts, only 18% of respondents expected the tensions to ease this year, while more than half, 58.2%, anticipated the current level of conflict to persist. Those expecting the conflict to intensify accounted for 23.8%.

HanKyungHyup analyzed, “Companies foresee that with major elections this year, including the US presidential election, the power struggle will intensify, and conflicts will continue centered on semiconductor and critical mineral supply chains.”

Companies also highly anticipated that the US high interest rate trend would continue this year, expecting only a slight easing even if it occurs. The most common response was ‘status quo (43.4%)’, followed by ‘slight decrease (38.5%)’.

As a countermeasure to global supply chain issues, companies most frequently chose ‘diversifying supply chains through discovering new business partners (45.9%)’. This was followed by ‘expanding investment in key resource development (23%)’ and ‘securing core technology and personnel internally (20.5%)’.

Additionally, as a response to prolonged war and expanding geopolitical conflicts, companies most often selected ‘seeking alternative import and export destinations (63.9%)’, and in response to the global economic demand downturn, they considered ‘discovering new businesses and diversifying operations (50%)’.

To secure global competitiveness, domestic companies identified the most necessary support as ‘relaxation of corporate regulations (31.1%)’, ‘tax support such as corporate tax cuts (28.7%)’, and ‘creating new overseas demand through expansion of trade areas (18%)’.

Kim Bong-man, Director of the International Headquarters at HanKyungHyup, stated, “While external risk factors such as global supply chain problems, high interest rates, and US-China conflicts continue, companies plan to respond by discovering new business partners and seeking alternative import and export destinations. We hope the government will also provide various supports to help companies create new overseas market demand.”

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