Seoul, March 17 (BNA): South Korea’s Ministry of Finance said today, Friday, that the No. 4 economy in Asia is still suffering from an economic slowdown amid sluggish exports and weak business sentiment.
“While inflation has slowed recently, the recovery in domestic consumption has moderated. With exports still sluggish and industrial firms’ sentiment dampening, the trend of economic slowdown has continued,” the Ministry of Economy and Finance said.
This is the second month in a row that the ministry mentioned the economic slowdown in its monthly assessment report, the Green Book, reports Yonhap News Agency.
In late February, the Bank of Korea kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.5 percent amid concerns that aggressive monetary tightening could hurt economic growth. It was the first freeze after seven consecutive months of increases intended to tame inflation.
Last month, South Korea’s annual consumer price growth fell below 5 percent for the first time in 10 months to 4.8 percent as prices for crude oil and domestic agricultural products stabilized.
However, South Korea’s exports fell for the fifth consecutive month in February due to weak global demand for semiconductors. This is also the first time since 1997 that the country has run a trade deficit for 12 months in a row.
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