Anchor: Economic outlooks issued by top global organizations for South Korea next year are quickly worsening. Global economic survey firm Consensus Economics projected that South Korea will see growth of two-point-nine percent next year, down three-tenths of a percentage point from a month ago. Our Bae Joo-yon has more. 
 
Report: In the latest monthly compilation of economic outlooks by global think tanks and investment banks, global economic survey firm Consensus Economics said an average of two-point-nine percent has been offered as South Korea’s estimated economic growth rate in 2016.
 
It is down by as much as zero-point-three percentage points from what was compiled a month earlier, and falls far behind the three-point-three percent growth predicted by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and three-point-two percent by the Bank of Korea.
 
Lee Seung-hoon, a researcher at Samsung Securities, said outlooks for many countries have worsened due to contracted trade and sluggish manufacturing activities around the world, but South Korea stands out for its relatively wide margin of decline.  
 
According to Consensus Economics, next year’s growth outlook for the U.S. economy fell from two-point-seven percent in September to two-point-six percent in October.
 
The same margin of decline was also observed for China, whose outlook dropped from six-point-six percent to six-and-a-half percent, and for Western Europe, which edged down to from one-point-nine percent to one-point-eight percent.
 
Japan’s outlook dropped by zero-point-two percentage points to one-point-three percent.
 
Consensus Economics compiles outlooks for countries based on analyses from around 700 economists across the world. The latest outlook for South Korea was a compilation of work by economists from 18 think tanks and investment banks, including the Economist Intelligence Unit, Goldman Sachs and Nomura Securities. 
 
Lee Seung-hoon of Samsung Securities said the possibility of a weakening momentum in exports and domestic demand apparently led to South Korea seeing such a large decline in its economic outlook among key countries.
 
Foreign experts’ worsening projection over South Korea’s economy can be confirmed in Bloomberg’s estimates as well.
 
Bloomberg marked down South Korea’s 2016 economic growth outlook from three percent in September to two-point-nine percent this month.
 
Morgan Stanley projected growth of two-point-two percent for South Korea, BNP Paribas two-point-four percent, Nomura two-and-a-half percent, ING two-point-eight percent, Goldman Sachs three-point-three percent and BOA Merrill Lynch three-point-four percent.
 
Consensus Economics’ economic growth projection for South Korea for this year remains the same as a month ago.
 
Kim Kyung-bin, a researcher at the Korea Center for International Finance, said in a report that a large number of investment banks assess that projections that the Bank of Korea has issued for this and next year are optimistic.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.