South Korea in April 2026: the most important developments in economy
In South Korea in April 2026, the economy was shaped by a boom in artificial intelligence chips and by an energy supply shock from the Iran war. Samsung Electronics reported an eightfold jump in quarterly profit as demand and prices for memory chips rose, and on April 30 it announced record sales and operating profit. SK Hynix posted record quarterly results and said it would invest about $13 billion in a new plant in South Korea. Chip exports helped the economy grow 1.7% in the first quarter, the fastest pace in over five years, and the KOSPI index passed 6,500 for the first time on April 23. Samsung also signed a deal to supply electric vehicle batteries to Mercedes, and it quadrupled its DRAM supply to Tesla.
Labour tension at Samsung followed. The union pushed for a 45 trillion won bonus and threatened a strike, and by April 27 a strike had hit chip production. The industry minister called for a solution between labour and management. Samsung also admitted a flaw in a key smartphone component and raised Galaxy phone prices, and executives were reported to fear a first loss in smartphones.
The government worked to secure oil after disruption at the Strait of Hormuz. It secured 273 million barrels of crude from Canada, said it had secured 80% of crude needs with no reserve release planned through May, and sent a Saudi crude tanker through the Red Sea route. Officials sought supplies from Kazakhstan, Algeria and Libya and said there were no plans to pay tolls to Iran. Parliament approved a supplementary budget, with payments of up to $600 to households. Seoul petrol and diesel prices topped 2,000 won per litre, and the Bank of Korea held its base rate.
On trade, President Lee and India's Modi agreed to double trade to $50 billion by 2030. South Korea and the EU agreed to a strategic economic partnership, and South Korea and France set a $20 billion trade target for 2030. Hyundai announced a $26 billion US investment plan through 2028, and Honda said it would stop selling cars in South Korea at the end of the year.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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