hello and welcome to business today. also in the programme shares at taz love fell sharply after the electric car maker reported its first drop in annual delivery. let's begin with south korea where police officers are at the presidential residence as they attempt to arrest the impeached president. around 20 officers marched to his residence in seoul around 8am local time. mr yoon was suspended for his duties in mid—december after lawmakers voted to impeach him over a short lived declaration of martial law. the south korean court rested and the rest —— issued an arrest warrant against him which his lawyer has predicted as illegal and invalid. for more on this let's speak with our colleague here in singapore. mariko, good to have you with me to talk about the stories continues to unfold. we know that the arrest could be happening eminently but there has been reaction on

the business front as well. it is interesting if you look at the stock market. it is not doing badly at all, it is up by about 1.6, doing badly at all, it is up by about1.6,1.7% now. and if you look at the currency, the south korean one which reacted badly, falling quite sharply on the day of that martial law declaration it doesn't move too badly either. we must remember that the authorities including the central bank have said at the central bank have said at the time that they would do basically anything to make sure that the financial markets are not affected or at least impact is limited. so far their efforts seem to be working. of course they have been concerns, especially from economists that if this goes on, this political uncertainty could affect business and investor sentiment. so far in terms of the stock market it is incredible when you watch the live pictures from seoul which are four unprecedented but the

stock market is doing fine. find stock market is doing fine. and if we look _ stock market is doing fine. and if we look at — stock market is doing fine. and if we look at those _ stock market is doing fine. and if we look at those images right now we can see the protests and supporters of yoon outside the presidential residence as well as a significant police and security presence as well. you can see a lot of police there on the screen and a lot of supporters of president yoon there with banners and flags. things seem calm as we watch although we do know that there have been very loud in making their voices heard, saying that these proceedings are illegal and voicing support for president yoon. calm at the moment although we know that there are more police officers now at the doors of the presidential residence trying to get into arrest president yoon. an interesting contrast then with how the markets have reacted. they are perhaps taking a longer term view? is it easy to

speculate as to how they are viewing these developments as they play out? it is viewing these developments as they play out?— they play out? it is fair to say that _ they play out? it is fair to say that this _ they play out? it is fair to say that this is _ they play out? it is fair to say that this is so - say that this is so unprecedented that no—one, i think, president yoon when he declared martial law he caught many people off guard and the fact that he has been impeached and the acting president impeached, the defence minister, the former defence minister has been arrested and so on. all of that is so unprecedented that economists and investors are watching to see how this will impact some of the biggest companies in the country, samsung and so on. as you say, this incident has really divided the opinions and shows what you are talking about, his supporters getting voices heard but at the same time there have been mass protests against president yoon as well and if you look at the latest survey a majority of the south koreans are in favour of him being impeached. authorities have been trying to

summon him and he rejected that several times which is why they had decided to send a team of officers starting with 20 and now reinforced with about 80 about an hour later trying to arrest him. they are at the door of his residence attempting entry. before that there was a military unit and there was a military unit and there were some concerns about whether there could be some clashes. it seems like they did not happen and now they are at the door attempting arrest so we will see what happens. fine we will see what happens. one step closer _ we will see what happens. one step closer to _ we will see what happens. one step closer to what _ we will see what happens. one step closer to what they are trying to achieve, the arrest of president yoon. let's remind our viewers of what has been happening on the business front in south korea. the benchmark indexis in south korea. the benchmark index is trading more than i% index is trading more than 1% higher and we can get more on the economic impact of what we have been seeing play out with him from casey trade. great to speak to you this morning about

what we have been seeing. can you help us make sense of how the markets are seeing this? good to be with you. you nailed it in the previous segment. the market is taking events in its stride, posting gains north of i.5%. stride, posting gains north of i.5%. some reasons could be put down to festive season optimism but another could think beat that investors think this is a short lived event and that there are better things to come in the second half of the year. the other factor is what is happening on the currency front with the korean won. that is down against the dollar, not a great indicatorfor down against the dollar, not a great indicator for the overall economy but it does it is a good sign for the export sector. the likes of samsung, sk hynek�*s who rely on that export growth, foreign sales. that is good news for them. domestic investors in south korea right now are looking at

the positives and focusing on that at the moment. turning up blind eye perhaps to what we see on the tv screens outside the former president's house but it remains to be seen how long this will drag on. 0verall long this will drag on. overall a surprisingly good performance from the stock market today. it kicked off in early december when president yoon tried to declare martial law which shook things up in south korea. the broader economy, it has been one month since that happened and there have been numerous protesters that we have been seen. as the broader economy been impacted? so seen. as the broader economy been impacted?— been impacted? so far it is a little early — been impacted? so far it is a little early to _ been impacted? so far it is a little early to tell. _ been impacted? so far it is a little early to tell. we - been impacted? so far it is a little early to tell. we did - little early to tell. we did see this week some manufacturing data from december which showed the manufacturing sector moving into contraction below that key 50 level. of course that caused concerns among investors in terms of where the economy is placed right now and on the inflation front i think there is still reasonably well—placed

there with inflation running below 2%. we have seen south korean authorities downgrading their gdp forecast for 2025 so gdp growth for the year was expected to be somewhere around that 1.5% expected to be somewhere around that i.5% so i think right now expectations are fairly low for the economy moving forward and i think that is also playing into what we are seeing, a little bit of enthusiasm on the stock market today because they could be a potential upside based on where those low expectations are at the moment. but i think one key area of concern at the moment is the foreign investors being wary of what is going on in south korea at the moment. we saw foreign funds pulling out because one thing investors do not like his uncertainty. so when you have political turmoil foreign investors look around the map and see that perhaps there are more stable places to park their funds at the moment. there has been an output of foreign investment in south korea so much of what we see

todayis korea so much of what we see today is based on domestic demand activity in south korea. south korea is been on the news notjust south korea is been on the news not just for this south korea is been on the news notjust for this political turmoil but it is currently experiencing and earlier this week we saw that air crash that killed 179 people. it has been at tough start to the year for south korea.— south korea. that is right. that is a — south korea. that is right. that is a disappointing - south korea. that is right. j that is a disappointing and south korea. that is right. - that is a disappointing and sad start to the year for south korea and i guess you could add to the mix as well uncertainty as we approachjanuary to the mix as well uncertainty as we approach january 20 and the incoming trump administration. there has been administration. there has been a lot of talk about what sort of tariff levels we could see on a number of countries and certainly that is a cloud over notjust certainly that is a cloud over not just south certainly that is a cloud over notjust south korea but the overall global economy right now. how high were those tariffs go? if we saw stiff tariffs go? if we saw stiff tariffs come in the neck could certainly impact sensitive sectors within the south korean economy, we are talking about the chipmakers there and the electronic sector. so they

could be susceptible moving into the rest of 2025 if we saw tariff walls break out. that could interrupt supply chains for the shipping sector and so forth. that keeps sentiment towards south korea on the back foot at the moment. lots towards south korea on the back foot at the moment.— foot at the moment. lots of headwinds _ foot at the moment. lots of headwinds ahead _ foot at the moment. lots of headwinds ahead but - foot at the moment. lots of headwinds ahead but in - foot at the moment. lots of headwinds ahead but in the | headwinds ahead but in the short term what are you looking out for when it comes to south korea and what we have seen unfold today? it korea and what we have seen unfold today?— korea and what we have seen unfold today? it remains to be seen 'ust unfold today? it remains to be seen just how _ unfold today? it remains to be seen just how long _ unfold today? it remains to be seen just how long the - seen just how long the situation will drag seenjust how long the situation will drag on. if seen just how long the situation will drag on. if you look back at the start of look back at the star