The Bank of Korea has named performance bonuses at Samsung Electronics and SK hynix as a risk to the country's inflationary stability, warning in a price-stability report on June 17th that payouts worth several hundred thousand dollars per worker could push wages higher across the wider economy. The central bank found that special pay in the IT sector increased by 60.6% year over year in the first quarter, while wage growth elsewhere ran at just 2.1%, a gap wide enough that two chipmakers are now featured in national monetary policy. The bank held its benchmark rate at 2.50% in May and projects full-year inflation of 2.7%, above its 2% target.
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