1분기 성장률 -1.3%...유가급락에 소비자물가 8개월만에 마이너스 전환<br /><br />South Korea's economy turned out to have shrunk by a seasonally adjusted one-point-three percent in the January to March period from the previous quarter... an inch better than the one-point-four percent contraction estimated earlier.<br />It's the worst figure since the end of 2008.<br />Yoon Jung-min has the numbers.<br />South Korea has seen its economy shrink in the first quarter of this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.<br />The Bank of Korea announced on Tuesday that South Korea's preliminary real gross domestic product fell 1-point-3 percent on-quarter from January to March.<br />That's the lowest figure since the fourth quarter of 2008.<br />The latest figure, however, is actually point-1 percentage points higher than the BOK's earlier estimate.<br />The manufacturing sector shrunk by one-percent,... while services contracted 2-point-4 percent.<br />Private consumption plunged over 6-percent.<br />The central bank expects an even larger contraction in the second quarter.<br />"Considering today's first quarter growth of minus 1-point-3 percent,... we expect growth for the second quarter to be a little worse than minus 2-percent."<br />Meanwhile, real gross national income shrunk by point-8 percent on-quarter during the first three months of the year.<br />It seems COVID-19 has affected the country's overall economic growth in that period.<br />The central bank also released data on the same day showing that gross national income per capita was tallied at 32-thousand-115 U.S. dollars last year,... down over 4 percent on-year.<br />That's actually the biggest decline in around a decade.<br />The bank said it was mainly because of low growth and a weaker Korean Won.<br />South Korea's consumer price index was down point-3 percent on-year in May,... posting the first negative growth in eight months.<br />Statistics Korea attributed the contraction to falling oil prices and lower public service costs.<br />Petroleum product prices plunged over 18 percent,... while industrial goods prices fell 2 percent.<br />The price of agriculture and fishery products, however, went up by around 3 percent.<br />Yoon Jung-min, Arirang News.<br />
