[THE INVESTOR] A lawmaker from the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea has raised the necessity of abbreviating the unit of currency, and some of his colleagues are supporting his proposal for a redenomination.

Rep. Choi Woon-yeol of the Minjoo Party said that it is the right time to start negotiating among lawmakers whether to change the denomination. His suggestion indicates that the 20th National Assembly needs to take the initiative in garnering social consensus on the currency unit overhaul.

The optimum timing, mentioned by Choi, is believed to be the period from the second half of 2016 to the second half of 2017. No major political events are scheduled before the presidential election in December 2017. As he pointed out, it would be too late when candidates enter the presidential race in the first half of next year.

Choi’s suggestion is drawing attention as he had worked as a member of the Monetary Policy Committee -- which is composed of seven rate-setter-- at the Bank of Korea.

Incumbent senior officials at BOK have noted that the central bank already completed a low-key analysis over the past decade on the effects of redenomination, hence, the issue would largely be politically determined by President Park Geun-hye and the ruling Saenuri lawmakers. There could certainly be a backlash in society.

South Korea is the only country among the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development whose currency tops four digits per U.S. dollar. Even North Korea carried out a redenomination in 2009.

Inbound tourists can sometimes get confused by the multiple-unit conversions such as thousands of dollars to millions of won, as visitors to Turkey did before the country conducted a currency reform 11 years ago.

When the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank was held in May 2005 in Istanbul, it was interesting to see foreign participants or locals paid either 2 million lira in old notes or 2 lira in new notes for a bottle of water around the venue. In the early 2000s, Korean tourists to Turkey saw a foreign exchange rate of 1 million won to about 1.3 billion lira.

A reform could benefit the Park administration’s goal to increase state tax revenue. Through the redenomination, cash hidden in the underground economy could eventually circulate into the market to change into new banknotes.

As for side effects, there is a possibility that the country will face severe inflationary pressures.

If the currency is reformed 1,000 to 1, products with a price tag of 90,500 won ($78.6) in the current notes could practically be revalued to 100,000 won in the current notes (or 100 won in the new notes). Consumers might eventually make light of the 9.5 won gap between 100 and 90.5 won in the new notes, compared to what they might have felt over a 9,500 won difference in the present unit. Analysts have also predicted more retailers will likely tend to skip decimal fractions as time goes by.

Nevertheless, higher denominations appear to be necessary in terms of the globally recognized value of the local currency. A large portion of salaried workers in Korea are paid less than $50,000 per year, while most of their daily income surpasses 50,000 won.

Korea is one of the world’s top 30 countries in per-capita gross national income as of 2015.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)