One of the biggest achievements the Lee administration has made during the past two years is the earliest recovery from the global financial crisis out of all OECD member countries.

The Korean economy, which had recorded minus 5.1 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2008, improved to reach 0.1 percent of growth in the following quarter. This was helped by the government''s stimulus package, which started in early 2009. The annual economic growth rate of 2009 stood at 0.2 percent.

Korea''s current account in 2009 recorded the largest ever surplus of US$42.7 billion, up from a deficit in the previous year.

National financial markets stabilized in the second quarter of 2009 and the Korea Composite Stock Price Index recorded 1,682.7 points at the end of 2009, a whopping increase from 1,124.4 a year earlier.

The country''s foreign currency reserves increased to $26.9 billion at 2009''s end from $20.1 billion at the same time the previous year, thanks to the government''s currency swap deals with major economies, including the United States.

Korea''s key indexes of foreign currency markets also recovered to the pre‐crisis level: Its credit default swap premium, which spiked to 699 basis points in October 2009, was down to 103 b.p. in February 2010.

The consumer price index, which had climbed up to 5.9 percent in July 2008 due to skyrocketing prices of raw materials, decreased to 3.1 per cent in January 2010 following the government measures to fight high oil prices and stabilize people''s livelihoods.

The government''s active policies to create jobs saw visible results. A total of 95,000 people benefited from the government''s “job sharing” program in 2009, according to the Korea Labor Institute, and 250,000 new jobs and 99,000 internship positions were provided for the economically vulnerable and young jobseekers, respectively. A further 167,000 jobs were created in the service sector in the same period, the institute said.

To further increase employment, the government plans to channel its efforts through the national employment strategy meeting presided over by the President. The meeting was launched on Jan. 22 this year.

There have been other achievements made by the Lee government outside Korea.

It not only won the honor in September 2009 to host the November 2010 round of the world''s premier economic forum, the G‐20 meeting, but also earned Korea''s membership in the OECD Development Assistance Committee in November 2009, making the country the first one to have turned from being an aid receiver to a giver.

The administration also succeeded in winning a nuclear energy development contract with the United Arab Emirates in December, thereby expanding domestic companies'' chances to export their products abroad.