성장률 전망치 더 낮춘 국내기관…한경연은 1.9%까지 ↓<br /><br />We begin on the economic front...<br />Korea’s major research institutions have cut the nation’s growth outlook for this year... citing falling exports and unfavorable external factors.<br />Shrinking investment and domestic consumption... are also to blame for Korea’s gloomy economic forecast.<br />Lee Kyung-eun has our top story.<br />The Korea Economic Research Institute now forecasts the local economy to grow 1-point-nine percent this year.<br />Downgrading it from the previous 2-point-two percent in June, it becomes the first agency in Korea to put the figure below 2-percent range, citing growing uncertainties from home and abroad.<br />"Unlike what was expected before, the U.S.-China trade war has escalated in the second half, and at the same time there's the ongoing Seoul-Tokyo trade dispute. A lowering of the growth rate was inevitable, given the falling prices of semiconductors and growing trade uncertainties stemming from the export curbs Japan imposed in July."<br />Other economic think tanks have also lowered their forecasts.<br />The Hyundai Research Institute now has the figure at 2-point-1 percent... down from 2.5 percent three months ago,... and the Korea Institute of Finance last month... also predicted 2.1 percent.<br />Along with sluggish exports, experts attribute the cut to falling investment and domestic consumption.<br />Last month, facilities investment dropped nearly five percent on-year.<br />And inflation,...largely due to falling oil prices and weak consumer demand, turned negative for the first time,...triggering fears of deflation.<br />According to the Bank of Korea, if the economy maximized its economic output at a constant rate of inflation what's known as potential growth would be between 2-point-5 and 2-point-6 percent this year and next.<br />That figure is usually calculated every five years and it's been steadily declining from around 5 percent at the turn of the century,... which economists attribute to a rapidly aging population and falling productivity.<br />Lee Kyung-eun, Arirang News.<br />
