Korea’s 2025 economic growth rate projected to record only 1%

Forecasts have revealed that Korea’s economic growth will remain as low as 1% in 2025. Global investment banks are lowering the forecast rate one after another to the mid-1% range as both the domestic demands and exports are facing increasing challenges. Concerns are rising that the economic risk the nation is facing now may deepen with the political community remaining rather inactive on measures including earmarking additional supplementary budget for stimulus and easing semiconductor regulations.

According to the financial sector on February 21, a U.K.-based private research institute, Capital Economics, released a report on February 19, lowering its outlook on Korea's 2025 real GDP growth from the initial 1.1% to 1.0%.

The Capital Economics figure is even lower than the average forecast of eight global investment banks, including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, which stands at 1.6%. It's even lower than JP Morgan's 1.2%. Many are now watching the Bank of Korea's next move on whether it will adjust its growth rate forecast downward on February 25 from the current 1.6 - 1.7 %.


강우석기자 wskang@donga.com