Moody’s gave a positive assessment of South Korea’s 2027 budget strategy, proposed Future Fund and efforts to make its foreign exchange and capital markets more accessible to overseas investors. Moon Ji-sung, deputy minister for international affairs at the Ministry of Finance and Economy, presented the plans to Maria Lee, a managing director at Moody’s. The Future Fund would be financed in part by windfall tax revenue from a global semiconductor upcycle driven by the AI boom, with the government saying it would prioritize strategic investment over one-off spending and support public-finance stability. Moody’s said the budget proposal seeks to combine fiscal soundness with the development of future growth engines. The agency also praised Korea’s successful issuance of foreign exchange stabilization bonds, which Moon said drew strong participation from major investors, including central banks of major economies and international organizations. Seoul plans to further lower barriers for foreign investors and promote the internationalization of the won, enabling the currency to be freely held, traded and raised outside Korea.