The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Korean Economy and Industry: An Interim Assessment One Year after the Outbreak

COVID-19 was first reported in China in December 2019 and has since rapidly spread worldwide. It was declared a pandemic by the WHO in March 2020. In Korea, the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was on January 20, 2020. Thus, 2020 was a year that the Korean economy spent entirely under the shock of the pandemic. Vaccination has been underway since early this year (2021), but the COVID-19 crisis is not yet over. Therefore, it is still too early to make a final assessment of the economic impact of this crisis. However, given that data has been accumulated for more than one year since the outbreak of the pandemic, an intermediate assessment is possible. Assessing the impact of this crisis may also be meaningful in that the worst seems to have passed since ongoing worldwide vaccination efforts began. In addition, such a work is necessary for the practical purpose of providing information for a proper response until the crisis has passed. This paper attempts to examine the impact of the pandemic on the Korean economy and industry based on the data up to now and to find policy implications. Specifically this paper investigates the impact in terms of its magnitude, temporal progress, transmission route, sectoral distribution, and its determinants. Then based on this investigation, it also discusses implications for policy response.