Global investment banks raise Korea's 2026 growth outlook to 1.9%
Containers are stacked at a port in the South Korean city of Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, Nov. 2. Yonhap
Major global investment banks (IBs) have raised their outlook for Korea's 2026 economic growth, citing robust exports, a report showed Thursday.
As of end-October, eight major global investment banks (IBs), including Barclays, Bank of America and Citi, projected Asia's fourth-largest economy to expand 1.9 percent next year, up 0.1 percentage point from their median forecast published a month earlier, according to the report by the Korea Center for International Finance (KCIF).
The outlook is rosier than the Bank of Korea's (BOK) current projection of 1.6 percent growth for 2026. The central bank is scheduled to release a revised forecast later this month.
Among the institutions, Citi revised up its forecast to 2.2 percent from 1.6 percent, while JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs also expected Korea's economy to grow 2.2 percent next year.
Nomura forecast a 1.9 percent expansion, followed by UBS with 1.8 percent, Barclays with 1.7 percent and Bank of America with 1.6 percent, the KCIF said.
The IBs expected Korea's exports to remain solid next year, sustaining the economic growth following this year's strong performance.
The institutions raised their forecast for the ratio of the country's current account surplus to gross domestic product (GDP) in 2026 to 5.3 percent from their earlier projection of 4.7 percent, the report showed.