Dismissal of statistics chief draws criticism

By Yoon Ja-young

The sudden dismissal of the Statistics Korea chief is drawing suspicion that the administration is seeking to pressure the state agency to submit “tailored” statistics to support its income-led growth strategy.

Cheong Wa Dae appointed Kang Shin-wook, a director at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, as the new commissioner of Statistics Korea, Sunday, after dismissing Hwang Soo-kyeong.

The dismissal is unusual since she served only 13 months at the post while her predecessors served at least two years. Moreover, she is an expert in labor statistics, which suits the administration's priority of job creation.

It thus led to suspicion that the statistics on household income, which have put the administration in trouble, led to Hwang's dismissal.

Statistics Korea has been releasing data on household income each quarter. This year, it increased the number of sample households in its survey to 8,000 from 5,500 to improve the accuracy of the data.

The report for the first quarter, however, drew criticism of the administration's income-led economic growth strategy as it showed that the wages of those in the bottom 20 percent income bracket dipped, expanding the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

The administration has been steeply raising the minimum hourly wage to pull up the income up of low-income households, in the belief that it will lead to more consumption and stimulate the economy.

However, the measure only led to side effects such as worsening job figures, and economists have explained that small businesses and the self-employed are only decreasing the number of their employees as they cannot pay the steeply rising wages.

While Statistics Korea's reporting of the falling income of low-incomers and widening income gap was regarded as proof of the administration's failure, some experts have pointed out that Statistics Korea seems to have included a relatively larger portion of low-income households in its sample while increasing the size.

They explained that the change in sampling may have made the income data look worse than it actually is, and the newly appointed Kang is also among those who supported the explanation.

Hwang also refrained from producing statistics or providing interpretations for statistics that could support the administration's policy.

“Hwang has been sticking to the principle that statistics and policy are two separate things,” an official at Statistics Korea said. Kang is a labor economist specializing in income disparity and is known to have expertise in the minimum wage and the income-led growth theory.

Cheong Wa Dae, meanwhile, showed determination that it will continue with the income-led growth strategy.

“The recent employment and household income indices show that the government should accelerate its income-led growth policy instead of giving up on it,” Presidential policy chief Jang Ha-sung told reporters Sunday.

The dismissal is leading to political turmoil as opposition parties are criticizing that the administration is trying to distort statistics.

“It is policy chief Jang Ha-sung not Hwang who should be dismissed. The income-led growth strategy has failed,” said Kim Sung-tae, the floor leader of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party.