South Korea’s export-oriented economy is in greater jeopardy from Donald Trump’s trade policies than from the political crisis unfolding at home, the country’s central bank governor has said.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Bank of Korea governor Rhee Chang-yong acknowledged that “critical structural reforms” to the South Korean economy and financial markets would be delayed as a result of the fallout from President Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed attempt this week to impose martial law.
But he said the economic impact of the political crisis in Seoul would be “limited” when compared with the potential consequences for Korean exporters of intensifying Chinese competition and the hefty tariffs Trump is expected to impose on leading trade partners of the US.