MSCI Says "All Issues Must Be Resolved for Korea's Reclassification as Developed Market"

The Korean stock market has failed to be included in the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Developed Markets (DM) Index. It was also not added to the watchlist, which is the preliminary stage before inclusion in the Developed Markets Index.

In its 2025 Market Accessibility Review report released on June 24 (local time), MSCI stated, "We will continue to monitor the implementation of measures to improve accessibility to the Korean equity market and the status of market adoption."

MSCI also said, "We will assess whether these (accessibility improvement) measures have replicated the performance of a fully functioning offshore foreign exchange market, as seen in developed markets."

Reuters Yonhap News

MSCI further stated, "For discussions to take place on potentially reclassifying the Korean stock market as a developed market, all outstanding issues must be resolved, market reforms must be fully implemented, and market participants must be given sufficient time to thoroughly assess the impact of these changes."

MSCI classifies global stock markets into developed, emerging, and frontier markets. Korea is currently classified as an emerging market, along with countries such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brazil.

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