January 2023
27Jan

South Korea pension fund will deplete faster than expected, report says

South Korea's huge national pension fund is set to see its pool of money depleted by 2055, earlier than expected, because of a shrinking population amid low economic growth, an official estimate showed on Friday. A government panel commissioned for the estimate, made every five years, said in a report that the National Pension Service (NPS) would see its fund depleted two years earlier than 2018 estimate predicted. The NPS had 915 trillion won ($743.13 billion) of funds as of the...

January 27, 2023
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16Jan

South Korea:Govt to reform national health insurance and pension schemes

The government will begin earnest discussions to boost the sustainability of the national health insurance system and plans to unveil reform measures by September. The Health Ministry has drawn up a plan to devise preliminary measures this month to improve the overall fiscal sustainability of health insurance coverage, according to a report by KBS World. The measures are expected to include some of those mentioned in a public hearing last year aimed at removing fiscal loopholes, such as stronger monitoring of...

January 16, 2023
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05Jan

Korea to take drastic measures to tackle population decline

The government will take drastic measures to tackle Korea's demographic crisis of its falling birthrate and rapidly aging society, said Na Kyung-won, head of the presidential committee on Aging Society and Population Policy, who floated the idea of writing off loans for married couples who give birth to children. "Now is the absolute last chance to take action on the imminent demographic crisis. Responding and adapting to the demographic change is a matter of the nation's survival and sustainability," Na,...

January 5, 2023
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December 2022
28Dec

South Korea. Population Declines for 36th Month due to Low Births

The country's population declined for three consecutive years due to a combination of plunging birth rate, society’s accelerated aging and the COVID-19 pandemic. According to data from Statistics Korea on Wednesday, there were 20-thousand-658 newborns in October, down zero-point-four percent from a year earlier. The on-year gain was the lowest for October since the agency began compiling related data in 1981. The tally for newborns has seen an on-year decline for 83 straight months since December 2015. The number of deaths in...

December 28, 2022
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22Dec

South Korea’s Corporate Retirement Pension Funds Jump 15.5% in 2021: Statistics Korea

South Korea's corporate retirement pension funds under management expanded 15.5% to 295 trillion won as of end-December 2021 from a year earlier, Yonhap News reported Monday, citing data compiled by Statistics Korea. A total of 425,000 firms in the country adopted the retirement pension funds scheme for their employees as of last year, marking a growth of 4% from 2020, according to the report. The corporate retirement pension program covered nearly 6.8 million workers in 2021, which accounted for 53.3%...

December 22, 2022
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International Comparative Analysis of Worker Age Distribution in the Service Industry
21Dec

International Comparative Analysis of Worker Age Distribution in the Service Industry

By: Donghee Lee The problem of youth unemployment has recently become one of the hottest issues in the South Korean economy. The unemployment rate of the youth, those aged 15 to 29, hit 9.0% in 2014, which is the highest on record since the Asian financial crisis in 1997. This raises concern because while the unemployment rate for all ages fell 0.2%p during 2010~2014, the youth unemployment rate rose 1.0%p in the same period. In addition, the Korean employment rate...

December 21, 2022
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16Dec

South Korea pension fund opens up FX hedging limit to maximum 10%

South Korea's mammoth state pension fund will hedge foreign exchange risks for up to 10% of its overseas investment compared with zero up to now, the welfare ministry said on Friday, a move expected to ease dollar demand on the onshore FX market. The fund has grown in size and its increasing purchases of dollars for investment abroad have been blamed for exacerbating the dollar/won's already rising trend in recent months. South Korea's currency hit its weakest level in 13...

December 16, 2022
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September 2022
29Sep

17.5% of South Korea’s population aged over 65 and older in 2022

Data show that in South Korea's rapidly aging society, people aged 65 and older made up 17.5 percent of the country's population this year. According to Statistics Korea, the number of senior citizens exceeded 9 million this year for the first time. The agency projects that seniors will account for 20 percent of the population, making it a super-aged society, in 2025. At that pace, it will have taken only seven years for the country to go from an aged society to...

September 29, 2022
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August 2022
23Aug

South Korea. At stake is how to reach consensus on contentious issues

The government has finally set about to reform the four major public pensions. In a policy briefing to President Yoon Suk-yeol last Friday, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said it would integrate the national pension with the three occupational pensions ― for public servants, veterans and teachers. It will then link them to the basic pension for people aged 65 and older. The ministry plans to complete the national pension's financial calculation by next March and submit a...

August 23, 2022
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July 2022
28Jul

South Korea pension fund says it is not driving won down

South Korea's national pension service, manageing the world's third-largest pension fund, said on Thursday its rising overseas investment was not a main driver of the won's recent weakening. "The fund is applying a strategic FX hedging strategy when the foreign exchange rate stands above a certain level," the National Pension Service said in a statement while responding to local media reports blaming it for the won's fall. Read more @Channel News Asia 450 views

July 28, 2022
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