The International Monetary Fund(IMF) has lowered South Korea’s 2017 economic growth outlook from three percent to somewhere in the two percent range.
In its World Economic Outlook Update released on Monday, the IMF slashed the outlook from its last prediction made in October. However, it did not specify by how much the projection was lowered.
The IMF’s downward adjustment is in line with many other international organizations and think tanks at home and abroad, which have also lowered their growth outlooks for South Korea.
Both the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) and the South Korean government predicted the South Korean economy will grow two-point-six percent this year. The Bank of Korea and the Korea Institute of Finance said it will grow two-point-five percent.
The IMF said it has revised upward the growth outlooks for Germany, the U.K., Japan and Spain, noting that those countries posted higher-than-expected growth last year.
Apart from South Korea, Italy also saw its 2017 outlook revised downward by the IMF.