South Korea’s economy grew 0.3 per cent in the third quarter, the Bank of Korea (BOK) reports. With increased exports, economy is also lower than the market forecast of 0.4 to 0.6 per cent.
The 2021 Third Quarter Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report has been released by the BOK on Oct 26th. According to the fresh statistics, real GDP in the Q3 increased 0.3 per cent from the previous quarter. Compared to the third quarter of last year, when the economy had slowed down due to COVID-19, it increased four per cent, ANI reports.
Despite the growth, it is still lower than the market forecast of 0.4 to 0.6 per cent, said Hwang Sang-pil, director of the statistics department at the BOK.
Commenting on the good sign, the experts stressed that the 0.3 per cent growth in the Q3 is due to global supply-chain bottlenecks such as decreased personal consumption, automobile semiconductor supply-chain disruptions, and imbalance in supply and demand of construction materials. “But this is not something to worry about much,” Hwang Sang-pil said.
Earlier, the BOK previously predicted that if GDP growth in the third and fourth quarters reaches more than 0.6 per cent, respectively. Moreover, the third-quarter economic growth rate is not much different from last August’s forecast.
“If the growth rate in the fourth quarter exceeds 1.04 per cent, it is possible to achieve an annual growth rate of four per cent,” Sang-pil says.
Due to the COVID-19 consequences across the globe, there are still risk factors such as global supply-chain disruptions, increased economic uncertainty in China, and rising energy prices. Despite all these factors, Seoul is expected to continue to recover due to positive factors like accelerating inoculation pace, easing quarantine regulations, and a second supplementary budget.
