Market sees similarities, differences from 2008

As Seoul shares plummeted to a 13-month low and concerns about an economic crisis rose, some analysts said the market turmoil looked similar to the financial crisis of 2008.

They said the start of the tumbling of shares was comparable to the global equity sell-off that occurred in 2008, which was sparked by the collapse of the leading U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers.

“Although it wasn’t a private bank that was to blame for this incident, it was the loosened financial control of the U.S. government, which makes those two cases similar,” said an industry watcher on condition of anonymity.

It was noted in the past that the U.S. economic meltdown impacted the global economy to a massive extent.

Currently, Southern Europe is on the edge of another potential financial crisis ― with it possibly triggering a new round of liquidity and solvency crises ― and Japan and China are also looking at survival measures.

On Monday, finance ministers of the Group of 20 released a joint statement agreeing to undertake all necessary steps for financial stability, such as keeping close contact in the coming weeks.

Some analysts, however, say the current market in turmoil is different ― more prepared globally and locally ― from the one that occurred earlier in 2008.

“Global financial stability efforts have taken place since 2008. On local grounds, the total foreign exchange holding has been enlarged, the short-term debt has become smaller and regulatory measures have been put in place to curb excessive capital flows in and out of the country, which is why it is less likely to turn into a global financial crisis,” said Chung Young-sik, an analyst at Samsung Economic Research Institute.

According to Financial Services Commission chairman Kim Seok-dong, foreign bonds carried by the nation in late June totaled $396.3 billion, down from $429.4 billion recorded in August 2008. Of the total foreign bonds, 38.2 percent was short-term debt in June, whereas the figure was as high as 43.4 percent in 2008.

Although it showed that the current situation is somewhat better than that of 2008, the government decided to minimize the exchange rate volatility for firms to gain export competitiveness and strengthen market monitoring to stabilize the threat imposed on the local financial industry.

“The current local market turmoil is distinctive from the 2008 global financial crisis. We will make ready and practice more market stabilization measures, if necessary,” said Kim.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)