New Year Speech  January 2, 2019  Juyeol Lee Governor The Bank of Korea  Dear fellow members of the Bank of Korea! Today we start our first tasks of 2019, filled with new hope and resolve. I would like to begin by expressing my heartfelt gratitude to all of you, for so faithfully carrying out your duties throughout the last year.
The Korean economy went through some difficult times last year, due to the heightening of uncertainties at home and abroad. Volatility in the international financial markets increased frequently, in line with the worsening of the global trade environment and with the financial instabilities suffered by some EMEs amid the series of policy rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.