Rhee Chang-yong, governor of the Bank of Korea, said on the 18th that "in the second half of the year, the impact of U.S. tariff will be greater."
Rhee said in a BBC interview aired this morning that "Korea is highly dependent on exports, so it is more affected by trade variables, but uncertainty, which had been the biggest risk factor, has decreased through negotiations."
However, he saw that the impact of U.S. tariff could be greater in the second half than in the first half. He said, "In the first half, export data were not bad thanks to the preemptive exports by our corporations," adding, "We expect a greater impact in the second half."
Rhee believed that, as investment in the United States expands, Korea and the United States should cooperate on technology. He said it would be really good "if we can develop joint ventures that combine basic science capabilities with Korea's manufacturing and applied technology capabilities."
On the AI bubble theory, he did not see major concerns. Rhee said, "There may be some speculative elements mixed in, but AI will spread across industries, including servers, smaller devices, and physical AI," adding, "Demand for semiconductors will also be massive."
He added, "Fortunately, we believe we are in a very strong position in new technologies like AI," and "our country has strengths not only in AI-related software but also in hardware."