South Korea’s Lee Approves Shin Hyun-song as Bank of Korea Governor

President Lee Jae-myung approved the appointment of Shin Hyun-song as governor of the Bank of Korea after the ruling and opposition parties agreed on and adopted his confirmation hearing report on April 20, senior presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said.

Shin will take office on April 21 and begin a four-year term. He assumes the role as domestic and global economic uncertainty intensifies, including geopolitical risks stemming from the Middle East. He now faces the dual challenge of containing high inflation and won weakness while guarding against a slowdown in growth.

Shin is regarded as combining academic credentials with hands-on policy experience across international financial institutions and academia. Born in Daegu in 1959, he attended Emanuel School in the UK and studied philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford. He later earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in economics from Oxford.

He built a long career in international finance and policy research. At the Bank for International Settlements, he served as economic adviser and head of the monetary and economic department, helping lead research on global financial stability and monetary policy. He also served as a professor of economics at Princeton University, a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund, and a member of the New York Fed’s Financial Advisory Roundtable. He previously worked as international economic adviser at South Korea’s presidential office.

In financial markets, Shin is classified as a pragmatic hawk for backing preemptive interest-rate increases to curb inflation.

Park Sang-kyung, Hankyung.com reporter highseoul@hankyung.com