Kim Yong-beom, the Blue House policy chief, said that the signs of a rebound in Korea's economic growth rate should be read as an early phase that shows the possibility that not just a simple recovery but the long-term trend itself may change.
Deputy Minister Kim posted on his Facebook on the 12th an article titled "Bye-bye East Asia stagnation theory" and stated accordingly. He said brisk semiconductor exports could serve as a catalyst for Korea's economy to enter a long-term growth trend.
Deputy Minister Kim assessed that, starting in the second half of last year, investments in data centers, advanced packaging, and power infrastructure expansion aligned all at once, rapidly reviving exports and corporate profits. He said, "From the second half of (2025), the mood changed, and coincidentally, that inflection point almost overlaps with the launch of the new administration," adding, "It is clear that the point at which the trend line changed direction is mid-2025."
He said, "In economic history, it is rare for policy and industry cycles to move in the same direction," adding, "It is uncommon for the two forces to amplify each other, but Korea in the second half of 2025 appears to have entered such a phase."
Deputy Minister Kim evaluated the years 2022 to 2024, under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, as "closer to decline than growth." He said, "The semiconductor downcycle crushed exports, and the KOSPI suffered prolonged weakness as its synchronized movement with U.S. stocks broke," adding, "Korea's economy began to be cited as a representative case of East Asia's low growth."
Deputy Minister Kim described the "three mega projects," which will inject 4,755 trillion won into semiconductors, physical AI, and data centers, as "a bold industrial policy to lift Korea's production capacity itself by another level," adding, "If we raise production capacity itself again, Korea can move from being the country that most faithfully followed Japan's path to the country that leaves that path first."
He also mentioned revising the Commercial Act, expanding directors' fiduciary duty to shareholders, and the Public Growth Fund, calling it "a process that ensures the fruits of production do not remain only inside corporations but circulate through corporate value and the public's asset back into investment in future industries."