SEOUL, KOREA - Korea's rate of growth in stock market index this year was ranked one of the worst among 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries. The No. 1 country in terms of stock index growth was Japan with more than a 50-percent increase thanks to the effect of "Abenomics."

 

According to the International Financial Center on December 24, KOSPI as of the 20th was 1,983.35, growing -0.7 percent this year to date, ranking 30th out of 34 OECD countries. Korean market's lackluster performance was attributable, among others, to the weakening of export competitiveness due to the strong won vis-a-vis the Japanese yen and the shrinking of investor confidence following the talks of quantitative easing tapering by U.S. monetary authorities.

 

During the same period, NASDAQ and Standard & Poor's 500 indexes jumped 35.9 percent and 27.5 percent, respectively. The countries that saw their financial market indexes tumble during the year were Chile's IGPA (-13.6%), Turkey's ISE 100 (-11.0%), The Czech Republic's PX (-5.9%), and Mexico's IPC (-3.5%), as well as KOSPI.