Choo stresses coordinated monetary, fiscal policies to address inflation
Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho, left, speaks during a session at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Gandhinagar, western India, in this July 17 photo released by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Yonhap
Korean Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho emphasized the importance of coordination between monetary and fiscal policies to address the ongoing global inflation during a Group of 20 finance meeting earlier this week, his office said Wednesday.
During the two-day G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting that ended in Gandhinagar, western India, on Tuesday, Choo noted that Korea was able to limit inflation by minimizing its expenditures while adopting tariff-rate quotas on major goods.
Korea has been adopting tariff rate quotas on key food products, including pork and mackerel, as well as industrial products, such as naphtha, to tame inflation.
Choo said such efforts have prevented an excessive transmission of global raw material price increases into the domestic market.
On the back of such efforts, Korea's on-year consumer price growth slowed for the fifth straight month in June, falling below 3 percent for the first time in 21 months at 2.7 percent, data showed earlier this month.
"We also welcome international cooperation aimed at bolstering the resilience of the supply chain, including the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework," Choo also said during the meeting.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Korea (BOK) kept its key interest rate unchanged at 3.5 percent last week.
It marked the fourth straight time that the central bank has stood pat following rate freezes in February, April and May. The rate freezes came after the bank delivered seven consecutive rate hikes from April 2022 to January 2023. (Yonhap)