Korea records world`s steepest fall in stock prices

Korean stock prices suffered the most precipitous fall in the past five years among 32 countries included in a survey by the National Statistical Office (NSO).

According to statistics released Wednesday by the NSO, the country`s stock price index fell from 100 in 1995 to 66.6 last September, even lower than 71.1 in the Philippines and 70 in Chile. The stock price index dipped as low as 43.4 in 1998, after the financial crisis hit, before rebounding to 105.3 in December 1999. Prices dropped by about half last year.

The index was 107 in Japan, 127.5 in Taiwan and 180.6 in Hong Kong, indicating that stock prices in those Asian countries were on a steady upslope during the same period.

Stock prices in European developed countries nearly doubled or tripled last year compared to their level in 1995. The stock price index last year stood at 336.5 in France, 327 in Italy, 333.8 in Sweden, 278 in Denmark, 256.6 in Germany, 233 in the United States and 179.2 in Britain.

[Yonhap]