As of May 2020, over 1,400 billion South Korean won were used on eating out at public restaurants by Korean citizens with their COVID-19 relief funds. To combat the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, the South Korean government organized emergency relief funds to the general Korean public. The funds were allocated electronically to declared debit or credit cards from the 13th of May 2020. The leading areas of relief fund usage were at restaurants, supermarkets, hospitals/pharmacies, and gas stations. According to the source, approximately 60 percent of the total relief funds allocated to debit or credit cards were used at the end of May 2020.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

As of May 2020, approximately 24 percent of COVID-19 relief funds were used in supermarkets by South Korean citizens. To combat the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, the South Korean government organized emergency relief funds to the general Korean public. The funds were allocated electronically to declared debit or credit cards from the 13th of May 2020. The leading areas of relief fund usage were at restaurants, supermarkets, hospitals/pharmacies, and gas stations. According to the source, approximately 60 percent of the total relief funds allocated to debit or credit cards were used at the end of May 2020.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

According to a survey conducted in South Korea in 2020, about 84 percent of respondents aged 30 to 39 years stated they had used the South Korean government's online service for applying for and receiving COVID-19 relief funds. Overall, respondents aged 30 years or older had a higher usage rate than younger people.South Korea has seen a rapid increase in the use of e-government services in recent years, especially after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the usage rate reached almost 89 percent.

According to a survey conducted in South Korea in 2020, about 73.8 percent of respondents said they had used the South Korean government's online service for applying for and receiving COVID-19 relief funds. Approximately 58.3 percent of respondents had used the government's online contact tracing service, which provides information on locations visited by people who tested positive for COVID-19. Services that provide information on available face masks or mobile apps for self-diagnosis and self-quarantine were also among the most frequently used online public services.E-government services in South Korea South Korea is one of the leading countries in e-government development. Citizens have easy online access to information on government policies and are also directly involved in decision-making processes through various digital platforms. The government also places a high value on public data disclosure in the form of open application programming interfaces (open APIs). The number of open APIs has increased sharply in recent years, especially in 2020 when it more than doubled year-over-year.Most used e-government services The most used government websites are hometax.go.kr and gov.kr. While hometax.go.kr provides comprehensive tax administration services, gov.kr is the leading government platform offering a comprehensive range of services from central government agencies, local governments, and public institutions.

The South Korean government provided financial support of approximately 300 billion South Korean won to small and mid-sized Korean airlines to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in early 2020. Furthermore, as of April 2020, the government announced aid packages to the two major Korean airlines, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, worth 1.2 and 1.7 trillion won each. Korean Airlines and the COVID-19 Pandemic The spread of COVID-19 in South Korea and then across the globe in the first months of 2020 heavily impacted domestic airlines. As countries went into lockdown and imposed restrictions on not only the entry of foreigners but even transits in some cases, a flurry of flight cancellations, ticket refunds, and even the complete suspension of flights erupted throughout the world. Subsequently, domestic airlines reported year-on-year revenue drops of 84.4 percent in the 3rd week of February 2020. In March, both international arrivals and departures dropped by over 94 percent compared to the previous year. Air cargo traffic was less affected, only recording a five percent drop. Industry insiders predicted that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic could dampen demand for global air travel for the rest of the year. Airlines’ Financial Woes The government decided to financially support these private companies after deliberation as the airlines’ financial woes were not entirely the result of the pandemic. Thus, there were concerns of public criticism for using taxpayers’ money to fund the airlines. Korea’s largest carrier, Korean Air, and others have promised to improve their financial status, cut dividends, and not lay off their employees as they receive public financial aid.

In 2023, South Korea's national debt accounted for approximately 46.9 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), which was a slight increase from about 45.9 percent in the previous year. The debt-to-GDP ratio of South Korea has been slowly but steadily increasing over the years. With the implementation of emergency relief funds and increased government spending during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, it was expected that the debt ratio would continue to grow in the future.

In 2024, around 96.8 percent of South Korean citizens used e-government services, up from about 90.6 percent in the previous year. The usage rate has nearly doubled over the last decade, with almost all citizens making use of this service. World e-government leader South Korea E-government (or electronic government) refers to the use of information and communications technology (ICT) for government services. South Korea is one of the leading countries in e-government development, ranking first in 2010, 2012, and 2014 and third in 2022 in the United Nations E-Government Development Index (EGDI). Due to the government's efforts to make its online services user-friendly, the satisfaction level has risen accordingly. E-government and COVID-19 Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the South Korean government has launched various new online services to respond effectively to the situation. For example, the online contact tracing service provided information on locations visited by people who tested positive for COVID-19 or the type of transportation used by these individuals. Many citizens also used public online services to apply for and receive COVID-19 relief funds.

Abstract

Myanmar Household High-frequency phone survey (MMR HFPS) is part of the MYANMAR COVID-19 MONITORING effort the World Bank initiated at the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic with support from Myanmar Central Statistical Organization (CSO). The MMR COVID-19 Monitoring platform provides regular updates on households’ living conditions, enterprises’ activities and communities' welfare.

The MMR HFPS data were collected nearly monthly. As of February 2021, six rounds of data collection had been conducted on a nationally representative sample of 1500 households, some of which had been interviewed in more than one round. Since the survey was conducted over the phone, it had to be corrected for lack of coverage of households who did not own a phone. The household survey questionnaire had core questions on respondents and household heads’ labor participation and income, farm and non-farm household businesses, food security, coping mechanisms and social assistance. Depending on stakeholders’ interests, the questionnaire adopted a modular approach, which allowed extending it in some rounds to cover health and education questions, and COVID-19 knowledge.

Myanmar COVID-19 Monitoring was generously supported through the Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCBIII) by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, the Government of Korea, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland. Additional support was provided by the governments of Australia, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

• Household
• Individual

Universe

The universe for this survey is the whole population in Myanmar. The sample frame used was an existing list of phone numbers provided by the firm collecting the data.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sampling frame is a list of all units of analysis within a population. In the present survey, the sample frame is all households (the unit of analysis) within the population of Myanmar. For list-based sampling, samples should be selected with simple random sampling, explicitly or implicitly stratified.

For the HFPS, two sample frames are under consideration: (1) a database of 500,000 phone respondents built by the consultancy firm implementing the survey and collected on a monthly basis to have; and (2) a clustered sample frame from Myanmar Living Conditions Survey 2017 (MLCS 2017) with names of household heads and phone numbers from 13,730 households.

The final sample size has been dictated by the available budget although sample size requirement depends on analytical objectives. We are interested in measuring changes in employment opportunities and food security when surveying households. The number of observations to detect changes over time may be more than those usually required for reliable for point estimates. We have assumed that budget would be available to collect data on 1500 households to have sufficiently precise estimates. Each round will target 1500 interviews. If the respondent fails to carry forward from round 1, then they should be replaced.

The HFPS could follow a simple random sampling using the frame provided by the firm. This consists of randomly selecting the 1,500 respondents from the list frame provided by the firm which is not clustered.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Telephone Interview [cati]

Research instrument

The Myanmar COVID-19 High-Frequency Survey (MMR HFPS) questionnaire comprises of the following sections: 1 - Household Demographics, 2 - Location, 3 - Dwelling Characteristics, 4 - Employment, 5 - Head Employment, 6 - Family Businesses, 7 - Agriculture, 8 - Rice, 9 - Remittances, 10 - COVID Responses, 11 - Consumption Pattern, 12 - Food insecurity, 14 - Member Dynamics, 15 - COVID Measures, 16 - Health, and 17 - Education.