실물상품 연계 금융거래와 상품선물거래소의 경제적 중요성 및 활성화에 관한 연구

Since commodities are raw materials that are transformable and consumable, the increase in their prices plays one of the main roles in determining the overall inflation in the economy, which in turn causes the reduction of the real value of nominal income and wealth due to the decrease of monetary purchasing power. As such, even individual households who do not have any direct demand for commodities would like to have exposure to commodities to hedge the inflation risk. Therefore, the overall social and economic welfare would increase if people could more easily access the commodity-linked financial markets and trades. Commodity-backed credit trading has an active and long history in China, Europe, Japan, the US, and many other countries. In contrast, commodity-derivatives trading in Korea has been very slack. The quality of the legal environment and infrastructure related to commodity trading and its derivatives is so poor. In addition, Korea does not have a commodity exchange yet. Nonetheless, there are intense debates concerning the ownership and the location of the possible commodity exchange. In this paper, we first introduce the concept and economic importance of commodities, its trading, and the advanced US commodity market system including markets, regulations, and industry. Next, we discuss the cause of the poor commodity market in Korea and argue that the Korean economy needs to develop a commodity exchange and commodity-linked financial trading. Finally, we provide policy suggestions on the issuance and trading of commodity-linked bonds or notes, the development and listing of commodity ETFs, the promotion of the money management industry of commodity investment pools and related professionals, the improvement of the distribution structure in commodity markets, and the adoption of the competitive exchange system.