Coronavirus Cases Back Below 700

On the coronavirus front South Korea's new daily coronavirus cases fell back below 700 again Thursday, but the country is grappling with sporadic cluster infections amid the rising number of travelers enjoying warm weather. There were 629 new cases reported in the past 24 hours. On the vaccination front over 4 million people have now had the first dose, while 2 million have had the second. South Korea has promised to play a bigger role in easing global shortages of vaccines during a meeting with a group of countries supporting a multilateral trading regime.

• As previously mentioned, markets await retail sales data at 0300BST/1100KST, a speech from BoK Governor Lee at 0320BST/1120KST, while President Moon hosts a fiscal strategy meeting at 0600BST/1400KST. The meeting will focus on next year's budget and midterm fiscal policy, there were reports recently that a second budget was being considered, but this was quickly quashed by the finance ministry. Moon is expected to emphasize the need to maintain aggressive fiscal policies to overcome the coronavirus crisis and support the nation's bid for emerging as a pace setter.