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Coronavirus pandemic
This Week in AsiaEconomics

As South Korea’s economy rebounds, small businesses struggle with tighter coronavirus curbs

  • Official figures show the country’s economy rebounding from its pandemic slump, with exports rising and growth data coming in stronger than expected
  • But all that means little to the small business owners hit by a slew of new Covid-19 restrictions in the wake of surging infection rates

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An electronic sign board shows the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) in Seoul on Thursday. Photo: EPA
Park Chan-kyongin Seoul
When Park Sang-jun heard that his country’s economy was continuing its rebound from a slump brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the owner of a small coffee shop in a city south of Seoul felt as if he must be living on another planet.
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South Korea’s exports rose 4 per cent in November from a year earlier to reach US$45.8 billion, according to data from the trade ministry. Growth, meanwhile, was stronger than estimated in the third quarter, with the Bank of Korea reporting a 2.1 per cent increase in gross domestic product compared with the previous three months – better than the 1.9 per cent in earlier calculations.

The stock market is also booming, with the country’s benchmark Kospi index gaining more than 80 per cent over the past nine months as authorities cut interest rates and poured money into the financial system in a bid to prop up the economy amid the pandemic.

But such positive economic indicators mean little to Park, who said his business had been struggling since March – when South Korea was hit by its first major outbreak of Covid-19, centred on the secretive Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the southeastern city of Daegu.

Health workers disinfect a school in Daegu on November 26. Photo: EPA
Health workers disinfect a school in Daegu on November 26. Photo: EPA
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“Things were bad enough throughout the year but they became worse after the new round of distancing regulations,” said the 56-year-old, referring to rules brought in on November 24 that required restaurants to close at 9pm and coffee shops to only serve orders for takeaway, among other curbs on nightclubs, karaoke bars, religious services, weddings, funerals and public transport.

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