Capital Expenditure Drops 10.4% in February

High-ranking officials at the Ministry of Economy and Finance recently met with top officials of major business groups to encourage investment.

High-ranking officials at the Ministry of Economy and Finance recently met with top executives at Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK and LG Groups to discuss investment and employment issues.

At the meeting, both sides shared their opinions on the current state of the South Korean economy. Those in the business community point out that the meeting is highly significant in that it was at the request of the government. “The request reflects the government’s eagerness for large-scale investment from major corporations with exports and facility investments remaining sluggish,” one of them mentioned.

Statistics Korea recently announced that the total capital expenditure showed a month-on-month decline of 10.4 percent in February this year, the highest rate of decrease since November 2013. “It seems that the unofficial meeting was for more candid opinions in that companies find it hard to touch sensitive issues at official policy discussions,” he continued to say.

It is said that the meeting covered matters of high significance related to the large corporations and their investments, including Hyundai Motor Group’s Global Business Center construction in Samsung-dong, Seoul and SK Hynix’s semiconductor manufacturing facility construction in Yong-in, Gyeonggi Province.

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