Rhee Chang-yong promises balance when he heads Bank of Korea

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Rhee Chang-yong promises balance when he heads Bank of Korea

Published: 24 Mar. 2022, 18:25

Bank of Korea Governor nominee Rhee Chang-yong [BOK]

Bank of Korea Gov. nominee Rhee Chang-yong said he will focus on balancing growth, inflation and financial stability when he leads the central bank.

Rhee was nominated by the Blue House on Wednesday to become a new Bank of Korea Governor after Gov. Lee Ju-yeol leaves on March 31.

Rhee was a director of the Asia and Pacific Department at the International Monetary Fund. He left that role following his nomination to lead the Bank of Korea.

"It is a great honor to be nominated as the chief of Bank of Korea, but I feel a great responsibility to lead monetary policy at a severe time like this," said Rhee in a statement on Thursday. "The U.S. Fed is raising the speed of normalizing monetary policy, and the chance of China's economic slowdown is rising amid the spread of Omicron variant in the country."

"There are concerns domestic inflation and economic risks could both grow as internal and external uncertainties rise. I will focus on how to lead monetary policy while taking into account ways to balance growth, inflation and financial stability."

He has been a chief economist at the Asian Development Bank and a vice chief of the Financial Services Commission.

Born in 1960, he was an assistant professor at the University of Rochester in 1989 when he was 29. He became an economics professor at Seoul National University in 1994 at the age of 34. Rhee co-wrote Principle of Economics with Lee Joon-koo, an economics professor at Seoul National University.

Lawrence Summers, who served as the United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001, was Rhee's mentor while he was studying at Harvard University.

Rhee was a member of an economic committee on the transition team of former president Lee Myung-bak ahead of his inauguration in 2007. He was a deputy chief at the Financial Services Commission in 2008 and 2009.

"Rhee is an outstanding person in many areas in terms of knowledge, policy management experience and international network," said Gov. Lee on Wednesday. "I have no advice for him because he is much more outstanding than I am."

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]