The International Monetary Fund has lowered Korea’s economic growth forecast to 3.2 percent this year, down from its initial forecast of 3.6 percent.
The revision was disclosed to financial policymakers at the Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors’ meeting in Moscow last week.
The IMF also predicted that Korea would grow 3.9 percent in 2014.
The global financial organization initially had a GDP outlook of 3.6 percent in October 2011 in its report.
However, the drop came as the IMF predicted that it would take much longer for the eurozone to recover from its debt crisis even though risks in the region as well as the U.S. had decreased.
It kept its global economic forecast unchanged at 3.5 percent.
The IMF’s forecast cut follows a string of revisions made by think tanks, investment banks and policymakers.
The state-run Korea Development Institute also lowered Korea’s growth by 0.4 percentage point to 3 percent, while the Bank of Korea revised down to 2.8 percent, from 3.2 percent.
The Korea Center for International Finance, which surveyed 10 foreign investment banks, had a 2.9 percent growth forecast for the country this year.
By Park Hyong-ki (
hkp@heraldcorp.com)
