Gov¡¯t efforts lacking, economist says

Chung Un-Chan, economics professor at Seoul National University, contended that President Kim Dae-Jung must report himself the current status of the Korean economy to the people and apologize for the additional expenditure of public funds.

Professor Chung made his remarks during his speech at a seminar titled, ¡°Is Korea's restructuring going well?¡± which was organized by the New Society Movement League.

Chung pointed out that the favorable macroeconomic indicators, including inflation, international balance of payments, foreign exchange reserve and interest rates, are simply due to expansive financial policy of the government.

He said that the Korean economy is at a critical stage and that the economic situation would further deteriorate after next year, noting that the government has been negligent about restructuring and that the current economic team hardly can pursue reform in a proper manner.

In particular, it is a problem that the government declares it will complete both corporate and financial restructuring by February next year while there are no serious efforts for such restructuring.

Choi Young-Hae moneychoi@donga.com