Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Rhee Chang-yong has been awarded Asia-Pacific Central Bank of the Year 2024 by global financial magazine the Banker for his efforts to stimulate growth and stabilize the South Korean economy.

In a world struggling with soaring inflation and struggling economies, Rhee has helped to keep the South Korean economy strong, according to the magazine.

In the face of rising inflation, the BOK chief has been resolute in holding a restrictive monetary policy, with inflation at the end of 2023 having eased to a 3.3 percent year-on-year increase in November 2023 compared with the previous year. The speed of the easing has been noted by commentators, adjusting at a faster rate than other developed economies.

The Banker said Rhee has called for controls on consumer debt levels, which have been driven by mortgage demand, and measures to be taken on both a macro- and microeconomic level to address the problems.

On winning the award, Rhee said despite the BOK’s early policy normalization, it
implemented seven consecutive rate hikes during the global inflation surge between 2022 and 2023, resulting in a cumulative increase of 300 basis points in this tightening cycle. He said inflation is currently trending toward the target but that the last miles of disinflation will be challenging.

“We continue to face sensitivity to energy prices, increasing geo-economic fragmentation, divergent monetary policies between the United States and Europe versus China and Japan, and the need for further progress in household deleveraging. Korea’s successful navigation could serve as a good example of integrated policy frameworks in monetary policy,” he said.

Source: Yonhap News Agency