Foreign investment banks (IBs) predict South Korea's export growth will likely
top those of its Asian peers mainly due to increased demand from China and a
free trade pact with the U.S. set to take effect early this year, data showed
Monday.
Global investment bank HSBC expected Korea's export to grow
9.7 percent on-year in the first quarter of 2012, with the figure to stay above
the 9 percent through most of the remainder of the year, according to the data
by the Korea Center for International Finance (KCIF).
China's export
growth is estimated at 6 percent in the first quarter with the corresponding
figure for Japan to be minus 9.8 percent, the data showed.
Korea's
exports grew nearly 20 percent on-year in 2011 to a record high of US$556.5
billion, according to the Korea Customs Service.
Foreign IBs including
Credit Suisse cited the high quality of Korean goods, firm demand from emerging
markets and a more positive U.S. economy as reasons for Korea's rosy export
outlook.
Another IB, Nomura, forecast Korea's gross domestic product
will expand 2.3 percent when the Korea-U.S. FTA goes into effect in the face of
a global economic slowdown.
However, the IBs painted a dim picture of
a dent in firms' investment, a stagnation in real income growth and a slowdown
in the housing market for Korea.