Lee Hyung-il, First Vice Minister of Economy and Finance, was nominated on the 30th as the new candidate for Deputy Prime Minister for Economy and Minister of Economy and Finance. A career bureaucrat who has worked across the full spectrum of macroeconomic policy, he is regarded as a figure who enjoys deep trust within the organization.
Kang Hoon-sik, Chief of Staff to the President, announced at a Blue House briefing that day that President Lee Jae-myung had tapped Lee as the new economic helmsman. “He is one of the most accomplished policy experts, having served in key economic policy posts across the board,” Kang said, explaining the selection. “As a young economic commander, we expect him to steer our economy toward stable growth.”
Born in Daegu in 1971, Lee graduated from Daegu Gyeongshin High School and Seoul National University’s Department of Economics before earning a Ph.D. in economics from Texas A&M University in the United States. After entering public service through the 36th Higher Civil Service Examination, he held a series of core positions overseeing macroeconomic policy at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, including Director of the Economic Analysis Division, Director of the General Policy Division, Director General of the Economic Policy Bureau, and Deputy Minister for Planning and Coordination.
He also served consecutively in the presidential offices of the Moon Jae-in and Yoon Suk-yeol administrations as Economic Policy Secretary and Senior Administrator. In 2023, he was appointed as the 20th Commissioner of Statistics Korea, temporarily leaving the ministry, but returned as First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance in June last year with the launch of the Lee Jae-myung administration. Following the government reorganization in January this year that established the Ministry of Economy and Finance, he has been leading major economic policies as its inaugural First Vice Minister.
His international experience is also extensive. He served as a Senior Economist at the World Bank for three years starting in 2015, and during his tenure as Commissioner of Statistics Korea, he gained recognition for his global acumen by serving as Vice Chair of the UN Statistical Commission and as a member of the Bureau of the OECD Committee on Statistics and Statistical Policy.
His leadership within the organization is also highly regarded. He was selected three times by Ministry of Economy and Finance employees in a direct vote for the “boss they want to emulate,” earning induction into the ministry’s hall of fame. His strengths are said to include a soft leadership style that prioritizes communication and encourages voluntary participation from staff.
Within the Ministry of Economy and Finance, expectations are high that this appointment will not only stabilize the organization but also accelerate responses to the mounting economic challenges at hand. The prevailing view is that Lee will continue the government’s economic leap-forward policies — including AI and semiconductor megaprojects aimed at raising the potential growth rate under an expansionary fiscal stance — while providing steady leadership for the economic authorities.
Lee’s key career milestones are as follows.
Note: Dates are based on appointment. His service in core macro-policy positions within the Ministry of Economy and Finance — including Director of the Economic Analysis Division, Director of the General Policy Division, Director General of the Economic Policy Bureau, and Deputy Minister for Planning and Coordination — is not separately listed.