KDI “올 성장률 0.2% 전망…이마저도 코로나 극복 전제<br /><br />The coronavirus could push down South Korea's economic growth rate for this year to almost zero.<br />That's according to a state-run economic thinktank, which published its forecast for the Korean economy on Wednesday.<br />Eum Ji-young has more.<br />The Korea Development Institute has significantly slashed its growth forecast for the Korean economy this year to almost zero.<br />In its report published on Wednesday, it forecast just zero-point-two percent growth this year.<br />That's two-point-one percent lower than its forecast in November last year, before the coronavirus outbreak.<br />"The cut in the economic growth forecast is mainly due to weak consumer spending and a contraction in exports amid the global pandemic."<br />The thinktank forecast private consumption to drop by two percent this year.<br />It said the damage in consumption in the service sector which requires face-to-face interaction is expected to be especially severe.<br />The country's exports are forecast to fall by 15.9 percent,... as many countries worldwide have taken lockdown measures amid the spread of the coronavirus.<br />If the projections are correct,... it will be the country's lowest rate of growth since the 1998 foreign exchange crisis when Korea saw the economy shrink by 5.1 percent.<br />One overseas expert said the actual growth rate will depend on what other countries do to deal with the pandemic.<br />"We find that the Korean economy which would've grown at 2.4% in 2020 without the virus,... it loses 4 percent growth. So it grows at -1.6. That's on the assumption that all countries do the right thing."<br />An official at the KDI said if the spread of COVID-19 slows down, a growth rate of 1.1 percent can be expected but if the pandemic lasts for longer, it could result in the economy shrinking by 1-point-6 percent.<br />Eum Ji-young, Arirang News.<br />
