Advertisement
Advertisement

South Korea’s think tank warns of steeper economic slowdown in H1

By:
Reuters
Published: Feb 9, 2023, 03:23 UTC

SEOUL (Reuters) - The rising cost of living is likely to hurt South Korea's economy much more significantly in the first half of this year than previously thought, its top government research agency said on Thursday.

A shopkeeper waits for customers at traditional market in Seoul

SEOUL (Reuters) – The rising cost of living is likely to hurt South Korea’s economy much more significantly in the first half of this year than previously thought, its top government research agency said on Thursday.

The Korea Development Institute (KDI) cut its economic growth forecast for the January-June period to 1.1% in annual terms from 1.4% seen in November, mainly due to slowing private consumption. That is less than half the five-year average of 2.3% growth for the comparable period.

Still, it kept the 1.8% growth forecast for the entire 2023, citing an accelerating recovery in the Chinese economy as the driving factor, although acknowledging huge uncertainty over the economic prospects in the giant neighbour.

South Korea’s economy, Asia’s fourth-largest, slipped into its first contraction in 2-1/2 years in the final quarter of 2022 due to a crash in exports.

The central bank has said growth in all of 2023 would slow to 1.7% from an estimated 2.6% gain in 2022.

(Reporting by Choonsik Yoo; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

About the Author

Reuterscontributor

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest international multimedia news provider reaching more than one billion people every day. Reuters provides trusted business, financial, national, and international news to professionals via Thomson Reuters desktops, the world's media organizations, and directly to consumers at Reuters.com and via Reuters TV. Learn more about Thomson Reuters products:

Did you find this article useful?

Advertisement