The International Monetary Fund is maintaining its earlier three-percent growth forecast for South Korea for this year... and the outlook is in line with the Bank of Korea's growth outlook for 2018.
Lee Seung-jae reports.
The International Monetary Fund is forecasting that the global economy will continue to strengthen despite an overall decline in global stock markets and the simmering trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
The IMF also says it's maintaining its three-percent growth forecast for South Korea this year.
This matches the three-percent growth forecast by the Bank of Korea last week despite mixed signs facing the export-driven economy.
In addition, the IMF's World Economic Outlook forecasts two-point-nine percent growth for 2019,... and a slight downward trend of zero-point-one percent each year, for the next few years.
This comes as the nation's economy grew three-point-one percent last year,... accelerating from the previous year's two-point-eight percent growth,... on the back of robust exports and a recovery in private spending.
Meanwhile, the global economy as a whole is expected to expand three-point-nine percent in 2018,... unchanged from its earlier forecast,... with the IMF also predicting the same level of growth for the following year.
The growth forecast is the fastest pace since 2011,... with every major economy expected to grow for a second year in a row,... "supported by strong momentum, favorable market sentiment, accommodative financial conditions, and the domestic and international repercussions of expansionary fiscal policy in the U.S."
Despite the rosy outlook,... the IMF warned that rising U.S.-China trade tensions threaten to damage the steady global growth picture,... but added there was still time for the world's two largest economies to step back from the brink.
Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.