Korea vulnerable to oil price hikes: Goldman

Higher oil prices will have a greater impact on Korea than other Asian economies, Goldman Sachs said, indicating its economic growth is more exposed to oil price risks.

Goldman Sachs said Korea’s economic growth, along with that of Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore, will be reduced by 30 basis points in proportion to a 10 percentage point rise in global crude oil prices.

Countries in Asia, with the exception of Japan, are expected to lower by an average of 14 basis points, with China seeing only modest impact at around 10 basis points.

For the whole of 2010, the Korean economy expanded at an eight-year high of 6.1 percent, sharply up from 0.2 percent growth in 2009.

Korea remains vulnerable to oil price fluctuations in the international crude oil market as it depends mostly on imports for its energy needs. It is the world’s fifth-largest oil importer. 

(Yonhap News)