News Room - Business/Economics

Posted on 04 Dec 2009

S. Korea said Friday its economy grew 3.2% in Q3

South Korea's economy expanded a revised 3.2 percent in the third quarter, the central bank said Friday, a better performance than initially estimated amid stronger growth in manufacturing, exports and services.

 

The revision in gross domestic product growth released by the Bank of Korea was for in the three months ended Sept. 30 compared with the previous quarter.

 

The bank said in October that Asia's fourth-largest economy had grown 2.9 percent. The revised result, based on more complete data, remained the country's best performance in more than seven years since an expansion of 3.8 percent in the first quarter of 2002, according to bank data.

 

The figure adds to mounting evidence that South Korea is recovering from the global slowdown. GDP has expanded three straight quarters after contracting 5.1 percent in the final three months of last year amid the shock of the worldwide financial meltdown.

 

Export markets for South Korean products had withered as consumers around the world slashed spending.

 

Manufacturing expanded 9.8 percent in the third quarter, compared with the initial estimate of 8.7 percent, the central bank said. Growth figures for capital spending, private consumption, exports and services were also revised upward.

 

The Bank of Korea also said that the economy grew 0.9 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period last year.

 

That was higher than the initial estimate of a 0.6 percent expansion.

 

Beginning in the fourth quarter last year the economy had contracted for three straight quarters compared with the year before.

 

The government's Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Tuesday that exports posted their first year-on-year gain in 13 months in November, increasing 18.8 percent to $34.3 billion in November from a year earlier.

 

It was the first such gain since October last year.

 

The unemployment situation is also improving.

 

The jobless rate fell to 3.2 percent in October, the lowest level in 11 months.

 

It peaked at a three-year high of 4 percent in March.

 

And the country's foreign currency reserves hit a record high of $270.89 billion in November, the central bank announced Wednesday. South Korea's reserves - the world's sixth largest - climbed this year after a steep fall in 2008 amid economic and financial uncertainties.

 

The Bank of Korea steadily slashed its benchmark interest rate after the onset of the global financial crisis to help boost the economy.

 

Attention is now focused on when Gov. Lee Seong-tae and other bank policy makers will decide to begin raising the rate from a record low 2 percent.

 

The next rate-setting policy meeting is scheduled for Dec. 10.