Semiconductor exports thanks to the AI boom will exceed the hit to South Korea’s economy from the war in Iran and global energy shock, the central bank chief has said.
Shin Hyun-song, speaking at the conclusion on Thursday of his first monetary policy meeting as Bank of Korea governor, projected that GDP growth for 2026 would be 0.7 percentage points higher thanks to booming chip sales. That outweighs the bank’s estimated 0.4 percentage-point hit to GDP from the Gulf crisis.
South Korea’s economy and stock markets have been buoyed this year by soaring demand for high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI systems. Exports reached $78.5bn in the first quarter, 139 per cent higher than the same period last year. Leading Korean chipmakers Samsung and SK Hynix have each soared to a market capitalisation of $1tn.