Foreign Investment is Flooding Back to Korea

As the Korean economy stabilizes, foreign investment is returning rapidly to Korea.
Meanwhile, in the international markets, the spread interest rates of the bonds which Korea's government and companies issued are falling sharply.
The Ministry of Finance and Economy (MOFE) announced on November 4 that the scale of foreign direct investment in October was estimated to be 0.8~1 billion dollars. The scale is three times that of October in 1997 before the IMF bail-out.
Stock investment by foreigners is increasing sharply. Net buying (Buying minus Selling) of stocks by foreigners in October reached more than 500 million dollars (675.2 billion won) and just during November 2~3, recorded 150 million dollars (183.2 billion won).
Morgan Stanley Securities Co. forecasted that the Korean economy would hit the bottom during the first quarter of 1999 and show signs of recovery from the second quarter in 1999.
The spread interest rates for the forex stabilization fund bonds (10 year due) which the government issued in international markets fell a great deal from 10.1% in August to 5.5% at October-end.
Moreover, forex reserves at the end of October reached 45.27 billion dollars, which is more than the 45 billion dollars that the government promised to accomplish by year-end to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).