Hong Nam-ki: "IMF's Upgrade of South Korea's Growth Rate to 3.6% Holds Great Significance... Actively Utilizing the 'Upturn Opportunity'"

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister for Economy and Minister of Strategy and Finance [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Son Sun-hee] Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, said on the 26th, "The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast South Korea's growth rate this year at 3.6%, which is 0.5 percentage points higher than the World Economic Outlook (WEO) in January," adding, "Since the IMF is one of the most authoritative international organizations, the significant upward revision of its forecast carries great meaning." He also stated, "The government will make every effort to actively utilize the global economic upturn opportunity so that our economy can be among the leading groups to emerge first from the COVID-19 crisis."

Deputy Prime Minister Hong wrote on his social media service (SNS) that morning, "This figure greatly exceeds not only our government's forecast at the end of last year (3.2%) but also the highest forecast among major international organizations, the OECD's forecast (3.3%, March 2021)," emphasizing this point.

Earlier, the IMF revised South Korea's economic growth forecast to 3.6% in its annual consultation report, an upward adjustment of 0.5 percentage points in just two months. The annual consultation report is a regular publication by the IMF that contains economic assessments, forecasts, and policy recommendations for member countries.

Regarding the IMF's upward revision of the growth rate, Deputy Prime Minister Hong noted, "This aligns with the average growth forecasts for South Korea this year by international credit rating agencies such as Standard & Poor's (S&P), which is 3.5%, and the recent upward revision of the average growth forecasts by seven global investment banks (IBs), including Goldman Sachs, from 3.4% to 3.9%."

He also analyzed, "In the policy recommendation section, the IMF advised policies to consolidate a resilient, environmentally friendly, and inclusive medium-term growth foundation while continuing the current recovery trend. This largely coincides with the government's two major goals presented in this year's economic policy direction: 'fast and strong economic recovery' and 'a major transition to a leading economy.'"

Deputy Prime Minister Hong added, "Although not included in the official report, there were meaningful comments during the IMF Executive Board discussions held for the review of this annual consultation report," and conveyed, "Board members expressed positive evaluations and welcomed South Korea's exemplary COVID-19 response and proactive measures in foreign exchange and financial sectors." He further noted, "In particular, the booklet published and distributed by our government to share COVID-19 response experiences (All about Korea’s Response to COVID-19) was reported to have served as a valuable policy reference in their home countries."

Hong Nam-ki affirmed his determination, saying, "We will concentrate all our capabilities on the prompt execution of supplementary budget projects such as the 4th disaster relief fund and direct job creation," and added, "We will accelerate the implementation of sectoral tasks, including the early execution of this year's 21 trillion won budget for the Korean New Deal, which received positive evaluations as a structural reform effort, and the launch of the policy-type New Deal fund at the end of this month, to realize tangible results."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.