December 2022
16Dec

South Korea pension fund opens up FX hedging limit to maximum 10%

South Korea's mammoth state pension fund will hedge foreign exchange risks for up to 10% of its overseas investment compared with zero up to now, the welfare ministry said on Friday, a move expected to ease dollar demand on the onshore FX market. The fund has grown in size and its increasing purchases of dollars for investment abroad have been blamed for exacerbating the dollar/won's already rising trend in recent months. South Korea's currency hit its weakest level in 13...

December 16, 2022
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September 2022
29Sep

17.5% of South Korea’s population aged over 65 and older in 2022

Data show that in South Korea's rapidly aging society, people aged 65 and older made up 17.5 percent of the country's population this year. According to Statistics Korea, the number of senior citizens exceeded 9 million this year for the first time. The agency projects that seniors will account for 20 percent of the population, making it a super-aged society, in 2025. At that pace, it will have taken only seven years for the country to go from an aged society to...

September 29, 2022
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August 2022
23Aug

South Korea. At stake is how to reach consensus on contentious issues

The government has finally set about to reform the four major public pensions. In a policy briefing to President Yoon Suk-yeol last Friday, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said it would integrate the national pension with the three occupational pensions ― for public servants, veterans and teachers. It will then link them to the basic pension for people aged 65 and older. The ministry plans to complete the national pension's financial calculation by next March and submit a...

August 23, 2022
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July 2022
28Jul

South Korea pension fund says it is not driving won down

South Korea's national pension service, manageing the world's third-largest pension fund, said on Thursday its rising overseas investment was not a main driver of the won's recent weakening. "The fund is applying a strategic FX hedging strategy when the foreign exchange rate stands above a certain level," the National Pension Service said in a statement while responding to local media reports blaming it for the won's fall. Read more @Channel News Asia 232 views

July 28, 2022
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21Jul

South Korea huge pension fund a local force driving won lower

South Korea's strenuous attempts to defend a sharply weakening currency have run into an unstoppable home-made force working in the opposite direction: the national pension fund. The National Pension Service (NPS), the world's third-largest such fund, has a hefty and growing appetite for equity and bond investment abroad, which it can feed only by selling won for foreign currency. It made net purchases of about $10 billion of foreign bonds and stocks in the first five months of 2022, central bank...

July 21, 2022
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June 2022
30Jun

South Korea’s pension fund carried out rare FX hedging this month

South Korea's National Pension Service sold a small amount of dollars on the forward market this month in its first foreign exchange hedging since early 2020, an official at the agency told Reuters on Thursday. The official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, did not disclose any more details such as the timing of the sale and amounts involved. The agency held a combined 312.3 trillion won ($240.21 billion) worth of foreign stocks and bonds...

June 30, 2022
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22Jun

South Korea saw biggest natural population decline for the month of April

The number of deaths in South Korea recorded in April rose to an all-time high for that month. According to Statistics Korea, in April, there were almost 37-thousand deaths, which was a whopping 46.3 percent increase from a year earlier. As for the number of births, it was the 77th month in a row almost six-and-a-half years straight that the number of babies born has declined. Births came in at a little over 21-thousand, which was down 7 percent from a year...

June 22, 2022
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May 2022
26May

Korea Investment Corp. reports 9.13% gain for 2021

Korea Investment Corporation, the Seoul-based sovereign wealth fund, reported a 9.13% investment gain for 2021 on the back of strong equity market returns, ending the year with its portfolio valued at $205 billion. A KIC news release Thursday credited "solid performance and continued asset entrustments by the government" for lifting the fund's portfolio above the $200 billion mark for the first time. A KIC spokeswoman declined to provide details regarding government infusions to the fund over the past year. But a...

May 26, 2022
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November 2021
22Nov

Move to hinterland triggers brain drain at Korea’s mega pension fund

Earlier this year, Lee left her fund management job at South Korea's national pension fund, the world's third-largest, fed up with long commutes between her home in Seoul and her office in Jeonju, 200 kilometers away. For four years, Lee lived in a studio apartment in Jeonju, a city of 658,000, on weekdays, and traveled back to Seoul for the weekend. She feared her family would break up if she didn't make the hard decision to quit. Lee is one of...

November 22, 2021
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16Nov

Experts Concerned About Senior Poverty in S. Korea as Aging Society Takes Speed

Experts are increasingly concerned over the issue of senior poverty caused by a lack of pension programs and other senior welfare policies as South Korea is becoming an aging society at twice the speed of Japan. The Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) conducted a survey of 500 senior respondents over 65 years of age from South Korea and Japan, which showed that fewer South Korean seniors receive pensions than their Japanese counterparts. Read also Bangladesh. Guardian Life launches “Ajibon Pension Plan”...

November 16, 2021
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