Economic Growth 2-3 Percent This Year

As it is forecast that the economic growth will be less than 1 percent during the third quarter of this year due to the terrorist attacks in the U.S., the government decided to aim the annual economic growth rate at 2-3 percent this year. This is much lower than 4-5 percent, which was announced in July when the government proclaimed its economic operation plan during the latter half of the year.

The Ministry of Finance and Economy plans to prepare the 3 step contingency economic plan, which includes such content, and considers announcing the detailed plan at the end of this month.

A high-ranking official of the Ministry of Finance and Economy said yesterday that ``we are preparing economic measure scenarios according to changing situations following the terrorist attacks in the U.S. Since the domestic and international economic uncertainty is increasing, we are considering plans to stabilize the market centering the short-term measures.``

The Ministry of Finance and Economy has aimed the economic growth rate at such a low rate since it is forecasting that the situation would become worse if the global economic stagnation goes downhill due to the terrorist attacks in the U.S., and if war takes place.

An official said that ``even if war ends in short term, the growth rate will stop at 3 percent, and if war expends in long-term, the growth rate is highly likely to stay in 2 percent.``

Prior to this, Bank of Korea once adjusted the estimated economic growth rate during the third quarter of this year from 3 percent to 0.5 percent in its report submitted to the provisional financial exchange committee on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Finance and Economy anticipates that the growth rate during the third quarter of this year would not become minus, unlike some people` forecast that it may.

yhchoi65@donga.com