Official Projection of Growth Exceeding 2% — The Day Semiconductor Exports Hit $8.5 Billion and KOSPI Surpassed 7,800

Numbers Spoke First On May 11, 2026, two figures simultaneously shifted the atmosphere of the South Korean economy. Immediately after the morning market opening, the KOSPI index broke the 7,800 threshold for the first time in history. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix jointly renewed record highs to drive the index upward, and the KOSPI closed at 7,822.24, surging 4.32% from the previous day. On the same morning, the Korea Customs Service announced that preliminary exports for May 1–10 stood at $18.4 billion. This marked the largest scale on record for the May 1–10 period, surpassing the previous record of $16.8 billion set in 2024 in just two years. Against the backdrop of these two figures, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yoon-chul took his seat in the press room at the Government Complex-Sejong in the afternoon. During a press briefing that day, he announc…