CEOs of the Top 100 Firms Answered "Growth Rate of Next Year will be below 5% "

CEOs of the Top 100 Firms Answered "Growth Rate of Next Year will be below 5% ". December. 15, 2002 22:43. by Joong-Hyun Park sanjuck@donga.com.

CEOs of Korean top 100 firms forecasted that an economic growth rate of next year will lower will lower and an inflation rate will increase over the year. Over the half of the above CEOs examined that a current economic situation would be depressed or was already depressed.

According to the result of the investigation of the economic prospects for 100 firms published by Korean Employer Federation (KEF) on December 15, 97% of CEOs answered that the economic growth rate of the next year will lower over the prospects value (6.2%) of the year.

45.5% of respondents answered that the Korean economy of next year would increase by 5%, and 27.3% of respondents answered that it would increase by 27.3%. Also, 22.2% of them answered 3% of the economic growth, and 2.0% of them answered the 2.0% of economic growth. However, only 3.0% of CEOs answered that the economic growth would increase by over 6%.

In terms of the prices of next year, 78.0% of CEOs forecasted that it will increase by 3∼4% over the prospect value(2.7%) of Bank of Korea(BOK) by reason of an uneasiness of oil prices based on Iraq war occurrence of US. 47.0% of respondents answered 3% of the economic growth. Also, there were 31.0% for 4% increase, 17% for 5% increase, 3.0% for 2% increase and 2.0% for over 6% increase in orders.

In terms of an investment plan of next year, 54.0% of CEOs answered ‘it will be similar to this year’. 14.0% and 7.0% of them answered a small reduction and large reduction respectively. The investigation indicated that over 70% of CEOs made the investment plan carefully.

In regard of an interest of next year, 52.5% of CEOs answered the proper interest level of 6∼7%, 28.3% and 18.2% of them answered the proper level of 4∼5% and 8∼9% respectively. Many respondents had a preference for a base maintenance of the low interest.

In terms of the restructuring results of the government, 51.5% of respondents answered ‘Not bad’. 34.3% and 2.1% of them answered ‘generally affirmative’ and ‘very affirmative’. However, 12.1% of them answered ‘negative’. Also, the investigation showed that the restructuring of the finance section was the most successful restructuring in the four sections. Also, it indicated there was the most insufficient restructuring of the public section.

In particular, 35.8% of respondents answered the insufficient restructuring of a labor section. It indicated there were the large complaints about the labor policy of the government.

In terms of the question about which economic policy the next government must prefer to, 38.9% of CEOs answered ‘the establishment of the market function centric-economic policy. Also, there were △regulation appeasement (25.0%), △settlement of the new labor-management culture and raise of the labor productivity (22.2%) and △ the establishment of the business activation policy through expanding the investment scale, in orders.