President Lee Jae Myung: "Normalizing the stock market has sharply reduced the pain of pension reform"

\r\n
[Financial News] President Lee Jae Myung said on the 5th that a report suggesting the strength of the domestic stock market could delay the depletion of the National Pension Fund showed that "normalizing the stock market has sharply reduced the need for pension restructuring to prevent fund depletion, as well as the scale of that pain."
President Lee shared the report on X, formerly Twitter, and made the remarks.
He added that "normalizing stock valuations, one of the Republic of Korea's key assets, is a good way to carry out pension reform without pain" and that "the normalization of the Republic of Korea will continue."
The report President Lee shared said the National Pension Fund's depletion point could be pushed back from earlier projections as stronger domestic equities improve NPS returns. According to the report, Professor Kim Yong-ha of Soonchunhyang University (SCH) estimated that if the increase in the National Pension Fund from last year through this year is reflected, the depletion point could be delayed by 24 years, from 2071 to 2095.
The estimate was based on the assumption that the fund's annual return rate will average 5.5% starting next year, while other variables such as demographic changes and long-term economic growth will remain at the levels used during last year's National Pension reform.
The report said market observers expect the National Pension Fund to have grown from 1,458 trillion won at the end of last year to around 1,800 trillion won by the end of May this year. The estimate was calculated on the assumption that the fund would reach 1,850 trillion won by year-end.
west@fnnews.com Seong Seok-woo Reporter