SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s central bank governor said on Thursday that the most important factor determining the health of Asia’s fourth-largest economy in the next few months was whether recent political turmoil would stabilise.

“Previously, the biggest variable was U.S. monetary and trade policy. Now, more than that, the biggest factor determining the economy is whether the political process proceeds stably, as we all want, in the next few months,” Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong told a news conference.

“That is why a normalisation of the political process is way more important than lowering interest rates a month earlier or later,” said Rhee, speaking after the Bank of Korea unexpectedly held policy interest rates steady at 3.00% on Thursday.

The policy decision is the first since President Yoon Suk Yeol’s attempt to impose martial law in early December triggered the country’s biggest political crisis in decades. The turmoil prompted the government to cut its 2025 economic growth forecast to 1.8% from 2.2%.

Rhee also said the decision not to cut rates reflected a need to support the won “which in part has been weakening due to political reasons.”

The central bank governor said, however, that the political event that took place on Wednesday provided support to the won, apparently referring to the arrest of impeached President Yoon.

Yoon’s arrest – the first of a sitting president – was fairly orderly amid fears violence could flare as more than 3,000 police officers marched on his residence. A previous attempt to arrest him on Jan. 3 failed after an hours-long standoff between investigators and Yoon’s personal security.

“The dollar-won exchange rate fell today, thanks to the U.S. inflation report, but what happened yesterday also affected it in a comprehensive manner,” Rhee said, when asked about movements of the won in relation to domestic political turmoil.

On Wednesday, the won briefly strengthened after news of Yoon’s arrest broke.

The currency extended gains on Thursday to hit its strongest level since Jan. 8 at 1,449.6 per dollar.

Yoon’s arrest may have ended one chapter in South Korea’s political crisis, but is unlikely to mark the end.

Yoon did not intend to take part in a second day of questioning on Thursday, his lawyer said, further stonewalling a criminal probe into whether he committed insurrection with his martial law bid as he fights for his political survival.

By Steve Holland, Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden capped a half-century political career on Wednesday with a final Oval Office speech as he hopes to seal a legacy overshadowed by Democrats’ failure to stop Donald Trump from returning to the White House.

Biden opened his speech with a familiar message – asking Americans to join together – but quickly warned about a dangerous concentration of wealth in the United States.

“Our system of separation of powers, checks and balances may not be perfect, but it has maintained our democracy for nearly 250 years, longer than any other nation in history that’s ever tried such a bold experiment,” Biden said.

But he warned of a “tech industrial complex” that is bringing an “avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power.” The free press, he added, “is crumbling.”

Biden hands over power to Trump at noon (1700 GMT) on Monday. Trump has enlisted billionaire Elon Musk, who helped his election efforts, as a special adviser charged with cutting costs from the federal government.

The foreboding speech comes as Biden’s Democratic Party has little leverage in national politics and Trump has nominated a slate of cabinet members who have pledged to upend traditional American alliances and governing norms.

Biden ran for president in 2020 as a transition figure, but opted at the unprecedented age of 80 to run for reelection, convinced he was the only Democrat who could beat Trump.

Forced out of the race in July after a disastrous debate against Trump, Biden has been blamed by some Democrats for their November wipeout, after Vice President Kamala Harris’ whirlwind campaign lost every battleground state.

Biden and his allies oversaw the recovery from COVID-19, funded an infrastructure revival, sparked new semiconductor chips manufacturing, and tackled climate change as they tried to rebalance inequality and invest in the future. He leaves an outperforming U.S. economy and optimistic businesses.

But Biden was unable to heal divisions in the country the way he had hoped, or stop democratic backsliding around the world. His crowning political achievement – defeating Trump in 2020 – proved temporary. Now the Republican president-elect has vowed to undo much of what the Democratic administration accomplished.

“All Joe Biden wanted was to be remembered for the great things he did for this country and, at least in the short run, they’ve been eclipsed by his ill-conceived decision to run,” said David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama.

“He became a historic president when he defeated Trump. So obviously the fact that Trump is resurgent and returning to power, more powerful than he was when he left, is an unhappy coda to the story.”

Biden addressed what he described as an ongoing threat to the country in a letter released early Wednesday by the White House.

“I ran for president because I believed that the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was at stake. And, that’s still the case,” he said, urging Americans to keep fighting for the country’s focus on equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

A White House official said that legacies are set over the long term.

“In historical terms, it has been a millisecond since the election. This president has locked in the most significant legislative record since LBJ (President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s), and the irreversible benefits of those laws will grow over decades,” the official said.

Senator Chris Coons, a longtime ally, said Biden faced an economic crisis, a public health crisis, and a democracy crisis following the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters when he came into office that year.

“The country was in the depths of crises. The recovery from that pandemic has been his single greatest accomplishment,” Coons said.

Biden’s administration oversaw the distribution of COVID vaccines and an economic recovery that defied predictions of a recession, even as inflation soared and prices remained high, which soured voters on his economic stewardship.

Republicans seized on public frustration in last year’s election, stoking anger over high prices with accusations of Democrat elitism and disconnection from working-class voters, while blaming immigrants for high prices, despite a lack of evidence.

“You cannot reverse four and a half decades of rising inequality with a few years of absolute good economic outcomes and policy changes,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute. “But one of the most fundamental things they did was provide relief recovery at the scale that was needed to generate a strong jobs recovery.”

AFGHANISTAN, ISRAEL

Biden, who spent more than three decades in the U.S. Senate and eight years as vice president to Obama before his four years as president, cites a unified Western response to Russia’s war with Ukraine, the strengthening of alliances and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as key foreign policy achievements.

However, 13 U.S. military personnel died during the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal in August 2021, and Biden’s popularity never recovered.

His staunch support for Israel, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in response to the Hamas militant group’s deadly attack on Israel, split the Democratic Party, and Biden’s reputation with the left suffered.

Vincent Rigby, a former senior national security adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said Biden would forever be remembered as an “interlude” president despite his solid achievements in rebuilding trust in the United States after Trump’s first term.

“We’ll see how history treats him five, 10, 15 years from now, but he’ll be seen as the president between the two Trump presidencies. He held the line, but Trump came back.”

New York, New York–(Newsfile Corp. – January 15, 2025) – WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of securities, including call options, of Five9, Inc. (NASDAQ: NASDAQ:) between June 4, 2024 and August 8, 2024, both dates inclusive (the “Class Period”), of the important February 3, 2025 lead plaintiff deadline.

SO WHAT: If you purchased Five9 securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Five9 class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=32046 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email case@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than February 3, 2025. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company at the time. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action (WA:) Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs’ Bar. Many of the firm’s attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, during the Class Period, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Five9’s net new business was not “strong irrespective of the macro” and was, in fact, hampered by macroeconomic issues such as constrained and scrutinized customer budgets; (2) Five9 was in the midst of a challenging bookings quarter due, in part, to sales execution and efficiency issues, and Five9 was not “seeing very strong bookings momentum”; and (3) defendants did not have “enough information in terms of [their] existing customers that are going live” such that the statements that Five9 would see a positive inflection in its dollar-based retention rate lacked a reasonable basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the Five9 class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=32046 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email case@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor’s ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

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To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/237305

By Cynthia Kim and Jihoon Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s central bank unexpectedly left its policy interest rate unchanged on Thursday, weighing the impact of its back-to-back cuts last year while supporting the won which weakened to a 15-year low versus the U.S. dollar in recent weeks.

Six of the bank’s seven board members said the Bank of Korea should be open to rate cuts in the next three months, Governor Rhee Chang-yong said at a news conference after the board held a policy review and decided to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.00%.

Only seven of 34 economists polled by Reuters had forecast no change in the rate level, while the remaining 27 had expected a third consecutive 25 basis-point cut, which would have been the first time since 2009 that it had cut at three straight meetings.

The decision is the first since impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol’s attempt to impose martial law in early December threw Asia’s fourth-largest economy into its biggest political crisis in decades. The turmoil prompted the government to cut its 2025 economic growth forecast to 1.8% from 2.2%.

The crash of Jeju Air flight 7C2216, which killed 179 people in the country’s deadliest air disaster, has also weighed on the economy.

The won’s slide is a major concern for policymakers. In the final three months of 2024, the currency weakened 10.6% against the dollar, its biggest quarterly drop since the third quarter of 2008.

Governor Rhee said the rate decision reflected a need to support the won “which in part has been weakening due to political reasons.”

“We will be able to make a more independent decision from U.S. monetary policies to cut policy rates once (domestic) political conflicts stabilise somewhat,” Rhee said, adding that currency authorities had been conducting smoothing operations to support the won.

Local currency dealers said apart from smoothing operations in the onshore dollar-won market, South Korea had also been relying on the National Pension Service’s currency hedging operations to support the won.

South Korea’s policy sensitive 3-year treasury bond futures sharply trimmed earlier gains after the rate decision. The won initally gained against the dollar, but then pulled back.

In a statement released shortly after its policy decision, the central bank said it expected 2025 economic growth to be slower than the 1.9% it had projected earlier due to weaker exports and deteriorating consumer sentiment.

“Elevated exchange rates could potentially exert upward pressure (on consumer prices), and uncertainties have increased related to global oil prices as well as economic growth at home and abroad,” it also said in the statement.

Economists see the central bank eyeing a more gradual pace of interest rate reductions in the year ahead.

“It seems the Bank of Korea was also pressured to hold rates today by news headlines of ‘three consecutive rate cuts’. Its policy stance of monetary easing remains intact, and market reaction still seems to indicate a rate cut next month,” said Daishin Securities economist Kong Dong-rak.

Median forecasts in the Reuters poll pointed to one interest rate cut of 25 basis points this quarter and cuts of the same degree in both the second and third quarters taking the rate to 2.25%.