SEOUL : South Korea’s economic growth is expected to have weakened in the third quarter, as high borrowing costs weighed on consumer spending and exports recovered at a slow pace, a Reuters survey showed, pointing to a challenging last few months of 2023.
Gross domestic product (GDP) for the July-September period is projected to have grown 0.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the median forecast of 25 economists in the survey conducted Oct. 18-23.
That compares with the 0.6 per cent expansion in the second quarter, which was the fastest rate in a year and largely driven by net exports contribution which economists said would also underpin the September quarter.
South Korea’s exports are slowly turning a corner, with the mildest fall in shipments seen last month in a yearlong downturn. Overall, however, the fragile global outlook remains a…
