Yoo Il-ho, new Minister of Ministry of Strategy and Finance[AJU NEWS DB]
South Korean President Park Geun-hye named a former land minister as the new finance minister on Monday to succeed Choi Kyung-hwan in a cabinet reshuffle on Monday.
Yoo Il-ho, 60, a scholar-turned politician who served as Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister for eight months until November this year, will assume the top post in managing Asia's fourth-largest economy after going through verification hearings at the National Assembly.
Soon after being nominated as the next finance minister, Yoo told reporters pre-emptive policy responses are required to address problems facing the economy, some of which he said were similar to those seen just before the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Outgoing finance minister Choi is expected to run for parliamentary elections in April.
Yoo "is the right person to pursue economic revitalization by successfully carrying out the government economic policy," Kim Sung-woo, chief presidential press secretary, said in a briefing. .
Analysts say the new finance minister is not likely to make a fundamental change in the economic policies.
Since taking office in July last year, Choi has introduced an aggressive stimulus package but has fallen far short of boosting the economy, analysts said.
His expansionary policy, dubbed "Choinomics," was meant to stimulate sagging corporate investment and consumer spending.
Expanded fiscal spending, easier rules on mortgages and the central bank's rate cuts have provided a boost to the property market in the past year, but these steps failed to provide any substantial boost to domestic spending with consumers weighed down by a heavy household debt and the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) this spring and summer.
Exports, South Korea’s traditional engine of growth, is also suffering from a year-long slump in the face of cooling demand from China and slowing emerging economies.
By Alex Lee
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
