Скачать или смотреть Concerns over negative growth / KBS 2025.04.24.

[Anchor]

The impact of U.S. tariffs has yet to be reflected, but our first-quarter growth rate has already turned negative.

Domestic demand is severely sluggish.

At this rate, there are concerns about the growth outlook for the rest of the year.

Reporter Hwang Hyun-kyu reports.

[Report]

The first-quarter economic growth rate is -0.2%.

This is a return to negative growth after three quarters.

In the past, following downturns during the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial crisis, the economy rebounded quickly.

However, this time it has been below 0.1% for four consecutive quarters.

This is the first time since statistics were compiled.

Recovery is slow, and the recession is prolonged.

Exports contributed about 0.3%p to the growth rate.

This effect is due to imports decreasing even more.

However, domestic demand, including consumption and investment, has cut the growth rate by 0.6%p.

[Lee Dong-won/Director of Economic Statistics Division 2, Bank of Korea: "It's not a situation where an external shock causes a crisis, but there is a continued aspect of sluggish domestic demand. The biggest issue is construction investment."]

The problem is 'going forward'.

As political uncertainty decreases, domestic demand may recover somewhat, but exports could become more difficult due to 'Trump tariffs'.

[Lee Chang-yong/Governor of the Bank of Korea/Interview with U.S. CNBC: "Now it's been settling down. On the other hand, we are seeing the rising uncertainty in the global market."]

The Bank of Korea has acknowledged that it has no choice but to significantly lower this year's growth rate forecast of 1.5% that it announced two months ago.

Following the IMF, JP Morgan lowered our growth rate forecast to 0.5% and other global investment banks are also revising their outlooks to the 'mid-0% range'.

Ultimately, the possibility of an interest rate cut next month has increased.

This is KBS News, Hwang Hyun-kyu.

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