A recovery takes hard work

A survey showed that of all members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, Korean companies and consumers are most confident of an economic recovery during the second half of the year.

According to the group of developed countries, Korea’s business confidence index and its consumer confidence index stood at 101.2 and 103.5, respectively, the highest among its 30 member countries.

The BCI and CCI indicate what direction businesses and consumers in a country expect their economy to take in the next six months. Both indexes for our country are higher than 100, indicating optimists outnumber pessimists, and they are also the highest among developed countries.

That means our companies and consumers are very confident that the economy will bounce back in the second half of the year.

In fact, various economic indicators and positive results from businesses have also proven that our economy has been recovering at the quickest pace in the OECD.

The potential of our economy has been praised by experts all over the world, and expectations that our economy will experience a swift V-shaped recovery after hitting bottom have been growing.

This positive outlook may encourage consumption and investment and therefore help lead to an early economic recovery in the best-case scenario.

But we must remember that if such expectations are not realized the economy may dip downward rapidly, and people may become frustrated. A positive attitude about an economic recovery can serve as the strongest business momentum.

Still, a positive outlook alone is not sufficient to restore the economy. Competence and hard work to turn one’s expectations into reality are also required. In the past, we successfully overcame a foreign exchange crisis faster than expected because we had a positive attitude and persevered.

What’s needed now to realize our positive expectations for a fast economic recovery is to make our economy healthy by carrying out bold restructuring and finding new growth engines to lead our country into the future.

President Lee Myung-bak emphasized Thursday that companies must not grow lax in their efforts to restructure. They need to prepare strategies to grow quickly when the economy finds its footing once again.

It is good to feel confident that the economy will recover. But now it is time to roll up our sleeves and work hard to ensure that confidence is not misplaced.