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China-Japan-Koreas | |
More financial transactions in NK done in Yuan | |
2014-03-21 | |
An exclusive Daily NK report that even low denomination transactions in North Korean markets now regularly take place in foreign currency rather than the country's own Korean People's Won (KPW) offers fresh evidence of the grave threat that hard currency usage poses to North Korea's fiscal sovereignty.
According to sources nearer Pyongyang, payments for private tutoring in English and Chinese in the capital are also frequently paid for in foreign currency, notably U.S. Dollars. Back on March 11th, Daily NK also reported that payment for trips by "servi-cha" or private bus are also being done in hard currency in the modern era. The cause of these changes is clear. Ever since the North Korean authorities implemented an economically ruinous flash currency redenomination on the morning of November 30, 2009, the public's preference for foreign currency holdings has grown all the more intense, and the value of the KPW has gone into concomitant deep decline. Reviewing this slow but steady push for more and more hard currency transactions, South Korean experts declare it a grave threat to the fiscal sovereignty of the North Korean state. The problem is not merely the 2009 currency redenomination, they say; evidence of fiscal incompetence and widespread malfeasance on the part of the authorities becomes clearer with every economic policy that fails to take off. Popular suspicion of domestic currency increases in lockstep, and the desire of people to hold hard currency grows. | |
Posted by:Steve White |
#1 Well, the NORKS just need to start counterfeiting the Yuan. |
Posted by: Alaska Paul 2014-03-21 00:07 |