{"id":2198424,"date":"2022-08-22T20:01:30","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T11:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/pro\/?p=2198424"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:11:43","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:11:43","slug":"why-south-koreas-powerful-economy-is-still-considered-a-developing-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2022\/08\/why-south-koreas-powerful-economy-is-still-considered-a-developing-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Why South Korea\u2019s powerful economy is still considered a developing market"},"content":{"rendered":"
Major international investment indices like MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) divide the world into developed, emerging and frontier markets, with the developed category including <\/span>economic juggernauts<\/span><\/a> like the U.S., Japan and other members of the G10.<\/span><\/p>\n Yet somewhat curiously, the MSCI continues to classify South Korea as an emerging market, even though it has the world\u2019s <\/span>10th-largest<\/span><\/a> nominal gross domestic product, outranking many G10 members like the Netherlands and Switzerland.<\/span><\/p>\n The differences in the MSCI\u2019s market types relate to openness to foreign ownership, accessibility to foreign capital, the efficiency of the operational framework, availability of different investment instruments and the stability of the institutional framework.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Meeting the MSCI\u2019s criteria is important because countries prize developed market status. It usually increases the amount of capital that pension funds and other institutional investors can put in a country\u2019s equities market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n MSCI benchmarks serve as the basis for many investment products. It may also increase the demand for a country\u2019s currency and its stability on global markets, as well as demand for debt instruments (thereby lowering interest rates). And South Korea\u2019s status as an emerging market may partially explain the <\/span>Korean discount<\/span><\/a>, the phenomenon of the country\u2019s stock market being underpriced.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The reasons for South Korea\u2019s apparently out-of-date classification are various and speak to a number of anachronistic features of the ROK economy, many of them holdovers from the country\u2019s days of dictatorship and more centralized economic control.<\/span><\/p>\n MSCI documents indicate:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n South Korea could fix many of these issues relatively easily, but the costs of doing so means the country does not yet appear motivated to implement reforms to meet MSCI standards, in many ways a reflection of South Korea\u2019s relative inaccessibility compared to countries with similar levels of wealth and development.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Central Seoul, Aug. 2014 | Image: Doug Sun Beams via Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n LOW COST ISSUES TO FIX<\/b><\/p>\n Perhaps the easiest issue to fix would be improving the provision of information to foreign investors, both corporate information and market-related information.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Making corporate information more readily available would impose some costs on companies, who would be forced to provide financial statements and various other disclosures in English. Meanwhile, releasing market information would break the power of the KOSPI\u2019s existing products, including futures, options and exchange traded-funds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n These costs would not be negligible for those who have to pay them \u2014 either in the actual costs of translation and localization, or else the loss of business that KOSPI and other indices would face if information and products related to the Korean stock market were also available elsewhere. But they are unlikely to be high for anyone else.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It should also be relatively easy for South Korea to lift the ban on <\/span>omnibus trading<\/span><\/a> (combining the trades of different customers to save on fees) and <\/span>in-kind transfers<\/span><\/a> (moving your stocks from one brokerage to another). The actual costs of doing this appear to be minimal, minus building some technical infrastructure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But while changing the rules would be easy, the rather onerous registration requirements for foreigners would complicate any effort to make an omnibus trading system work.<\/span><\/p>\n HIGHER COST ISSUES<\/b><\/p>\n The major problems that MSCI identifies would be more difficult for the Korea Exchange (KRX) to fix. These relate to South Korea\u2019s relative closedness to foreign investment and controls over the country\u2019s capital account.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n South Korea\u2019s history as a developmental state that underwent rapid economic growth, and the shocks it experienced during the Asian Financial Crisis, mean the country has retained some controls on the movement of capital. This includes a registration system that requires foreign investors to create accounts with the exchange and provide information about their identities, allowing the government to prevent significant foreign investments in industries and companies <\/span>deemed<\/span><\/a> to be of strategic importance.<\/span><\/p>\n Ending such a system of checks and controls on foreign investment would probably lower regulatory and transaction costs. But it could have indirect and significant political costs if foreign investors took over or owned large stakes in major munitions manufacturers or infrastructure-related firms, particularly if from countries not friendly to Korea.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Alternatives can be found, however. Developed country markets often regulate ownership in politically sensitive industries. The United States maintains The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), for instance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Another important issue is the lack of out-of-hours trade in forex and stocks more generally.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n South Korean won | Image: Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n All developed market currencies, and many emerging market currencies, are traded freely on foreign forex markets. The euro-dollar market is one of the largest, ,and most forex trade is conducted in one of four <\/span>locations<\/span><\/a> globally, with the London market the largest. This is part of the process of foreign currency <\/span>internationalization<\/span><\/a>, which involves ending restrictions on normal, cross-border financial flows of different currencies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But the Korean government does not allow the won to be sold on foreign forex markets, and thus it is one of many emerging market <\/span>currencies<\/span><\/a> that can <\/span>only<\/span><\/a> be bought and sold in bulk in its home market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The main reason for this is the risks associated with offshore trading, which can make a currency more volatile and put a country\u2019s economy at greater risk of rapid capital outflows (big selloffs in stock and\/or bonds).<\/span><\/p>\n The same problems are also associated with out-of-hours trading and with short-selling. Clearly these are areas where regulatory authorities in South Korea are reluctant to surrender more control to market participants and foreign actors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The problem is, even though maintaining such controls is probably advantageous for maintaining stability, it may also keep South Korea trapped in an investment category that keeps its stocks undervalued and forces corporations to pay more interest on bonds than would otherwise be necessary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Edited by Bryan Betts<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n