Korea’s post-Covid-19 growth rate averages 4.1%

Korea's economic growth rate in 2022 and 2023, just moving beyond the impact of COVID, was ranked low among advanced economies. According to the IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO) on Saturday, Korea is expected to grow 1.4% this year, following 2.6% last year. The two-year combined growth rate is 4.1%, ranking 25th among the 41 advanced economies classified by the IMF (including Hong Kong, Macau, etc.) trailing after the United States (4.15%). Among advanced economies, Macau (47.6%) had the highest growth rate, followed by Ireland (11.4%). The two-year average growth rate of advanced economies was 5.9%.

Even compared to economies of larger scale, Korea’s growth rate still remains low. The combined post-Covid-19 growth of Korea was ranked eighth out of 11 top economies with GDP exceeding one trillion won. Among the 11 economies, Spain (8.2%) and Australia (5.5%) showed high growth rates, while Germany was ranked the lowest. The two-year average growth rate of these economies was 4.4%.

Price indicator-wise, Korea performed relatively well. The IMF predicted that Korea's consumer price index (CPI) will rise 3.4% this year, following a 5.1% increase last year. Korea's two-year combined inflation rate was 8.5%, the sixth lowest among 41 economies. The average inflation rate of 41 economic regions was 13.6%.

Among leading economic blocs with nominal GDP exceeding 1 trillion U.S. dollars, Japan had the lowest two-year combined inflation rate at 5.7%, followed by Korea (8.5%), Canada (10.4%) and France (11.5%). “Korea’s performance was impacted by sluggish semi-conductor industry, coupled by slow economic recovery in China, Korea’s largest trading partnerm” said an Korean government official.


Do-Hyong Kim dodo@donga.com