South Korea’s economy on track for recovery

April 24, 2014

SEOUL – South Korea’s GDP rose by 3.9% y/y in Q1, slightly above market expectations. ANZ Bank believes the economy will continue to expand at this pace due to a proactive fiscal policy alongside global economic recovery. “We maintain our forecast that the Korean economy will grow by 3.7% in 2014 and that the output gap will narrow gradually towards the year end,” ANZ says in a research note.

“Growth was mainly driven by an upswing in investments, partly contributed by the newly introduced intellectual property item in growth accounting, which lifted 7.5%. Exports rose 1.7% q/q sa, suggesting that external demand remained firm. Imports contracted 0.5%.
“Private consumption rose steadily but unimpressively with a sequential growth rate of 0.3% q/q sa, compared with Q4’s 0.6%, indicating that domestic demand remained underperforming. www.live.anz.com (ATI).