On Track for Recovery
DPM Han says first-half economy showed sure signs of rebounding

The Ministry of Finance and Economy, in its green book, published monthly, said all indicators showed that the economy in the first half continued to display signs that it is on the way to recovery.
It said exports again led the recovery with double-digit growth, although lower than the same period a year earlier. The private consumption continued to manifest signs of slow recovery owing somewhat to restructure of household debts. Construction investment showed signs of a steady recovery.
But overall investment in facilities continued to be sluggish.
The green book mentioned that the manufacturing and service sectors which had been sluggish in the first quarter showed signs of recovery in the second quarter in reflection of improved domestic consumption.
With regard to employment and inflation, the publication said the job market was slow in March but made recovery since then. The inflation rate showed stability with consumer price rising 3 percent in the first half.
External conditions grew worse than expected, hampering the economic recovery projected to take place in the first half. The government plans to continue to maintain its expansionary macro-economic policies in the second half so that the economic growth would be close to its growth potential.
The government will next year, too, continue to maintain its policies aimed at recharging various key economic activities including investment and consumption to ensure a sound economic growth in the next several years.
Deputy Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said one house owner's tax burden will be much lighter than those who own more than a house in the process of rationalization of policies aimed at curbing speculative investments in houses.
At a media briefing, Han, who also is the Finance and Economy Minister, said the government will be positively behind those families who own one house each. He said the government will set up a precise and reliable system for stabilization of real estate market so that the people will trust government policies on the market. The policies to be drawn up by the end of next month will be focused on managing housing demand and supply in a comprehensive way.
He said many people should from the new measures because they would be a system that is far better than those created through law revision.
The top economic planner in the country said real estate problems are basically related to imbalance on their demand and supply and he is certain there are bubbles in the prices of large apartments.
Han said the basic direction of the new measures would be to collect taxes on profits generated from speculative investment in real estates through transparency of those transactions and strengthened tax regulations. He went on to say that the role of public side supply of houses will be expanded to make the supply of houses more stable to the general public.
The deputy prime minister said the government and the ruling party would hold weekly consultations on real estate policies until the end of August and those meetings and public hearings on the new measures would be so pushed through to become transparent and publicly supported.
With regard to the matter of supplying medium and large apartments in the Gangnam district in southern Seoul, he said the government would increase the supply of those apartments if their prices rise due to the shortage of those apartments. But he said profits from those apartments will be collected through taxes and the speculative transactions of those apartments would be suppressed by rationalized tax system.
He said no priority will be set for demand control and supply policies of apartments because they must be discussed together with the rationalization of tax systems pushed to suppress speculative demand for those apartments for stable apartment market activity. nw

Deputy Prime Minister Han Duck-soo