Yi Whan-woo is a Korea Times journalist primarily covering finance. He writes in-depth articles on macroeconomy and financial markets and previously covered sports, politics, diplomacy and inter-Korean affairs, among others. Feel free to contact him at yistory@koreatimes.co.kr.
IMF revises up Korea's 2024 growth forecast to 2.3%
A man walks past the International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., in this 2018 file photo. Reuters-Yonhap
By Yi Whan-woo
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised up its 2024 economic growth outlook for Korea to 2.3 percent from a previous forecast of 2.2 percent announced in October.
The IMF’s updated outlook for Korea is higher than projections by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which forecast 2.2 percent growth, and also the Bank of Korea (BOK), which projected a 2.1 percent expansion.
It is also higher than estimates announced by major international investment banks, which averaged 2.1 percent, and the same as the projection by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The U.S.-headquartered IMF did not give the reasons behind the improved growth forecast for Korea, but the revision came as Asia’s fourth-largest economy is anticipated to see a rebound in exports and a downward trajectory of inflation toward a target goal of 2 percent by the year-end.
The inflation outlook for the world and major economies including Korea was not given.
Concerning the global economy, the IMF said the possibility of a hard landing had decreased amid stable growth and eased inflation. The institution hiked the global economic growth outlook to 3.1 percent from 2.9 percent.
The outlook for advanced economies was revised up by 0.1 percentage point to 1.5 percent, and the forecast for the United States increased by 0.6 percentage point to 2.1 percent. The projection for the euro area fell by 0.3 percentage point to 0.9 percent.
China saw its 2024 growth outlook raised by 0.4 percentage point to 4.6 percent. India also saw an increase of 0.2 percentage point to 6.5 percent, while the United Kingdom and Italy remained unchanged at 0.6 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.
The outlook for Japan slid by 0.1 percentage point to 0.9 percent. Germany's growth outlook inched down 0.4 percentage point to 0.5 percent, while the projection for France slid 0.3 percentage point to 1 percent and Canada and Spain each shrank 0.2 percentage point to 1.4 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.
The IMF kept Korea's 2025 economic growth outlook steady at 2.3 percent, compared to a 3.2 percent expansion forecast for the global economy, 1.8 percent for advanced economies, 1.7 percent for the U.S., and 4.1 percent for China.