According to Yonhap News,
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Tuesday it kept the 2024 growth outlook for South Korea unchanged at 2.5 percent amid a stable global economic expansion.
The figure was on par with its projection made by July, when it increased the outlook by 0.2 percentage point, according to the latest World Economic Outlook report.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) presented a 2.5 percent expansion, and the Bank of Korea forecast 2.4 percent growth this year. The South Korean government expected the economy to grow 2.6 percent in 2024.
The IMF also maintained its growth forecast for South Korea next year at 2.2 percent.
The economy has been recovering, led by rising exports, particularly solid global demand for semiconductors.
In September, exports rose 7.5 percent on-year to US$58.7 billion, the 12th straight monthly gain, government data showed.
For the global economy, the IMF maintained the growth forecast for 2024 at 3.2 percent while revising down the 2025 forecast by 0.1 percentage point to 3.2 percent.
Of major nations, the organization raised the growth forecast for the United States this year by 0.2 percentage point to 2.8 percent, while slashing the figure for China to 4.8 percent from its earlier projection of 5 percent.
"Despite the good news on inflation, downside risks are increasing and now dominate the outlook," IMF economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said in a report.
"An escalation in regional conflicts, especially in the Middle East, could pose serious risks for commodity markets. Shifts toward undesirable trade and industrial policies can significantly lower output relative to our baseline forecast," the analyst said, also pointing out that maintaining a tight monetary policy for too long would "abruptly" worsen global financial conditions.
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Source: Yonhap News (October 22, 2024)