Lee Chang-yong "Economic Growth Rate This Year Likely to Fall to 2.0~2.1%"

Bank of Korea Governor Lee Chang-yong is attending the plenary meeting of the Planning and Finance Committee held at the National Assembly on the 17th, responding to questions from lawmakers. Photo by Kim Hyun-min

Lee Chang-yong, Governor of the Bank of Korea, stated on the 17th that "it is true that this year's economic growth rate may be slightly lower than initially forecasted."

Governor Lee made this remark during an urgent inquiry at the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee in response to a question from Kim Young-hwan, a member of the Democratic Party, regarding the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate.

He said, "We had expected the growth rate for the fourth quarter of this year to be about 0.4% quarter-on-quarter and forecasted an annual growth rate of 2.2%, but we need to observe the situation a bit more closely."

He added, "Whether it will be 2.0% or 2.1% remains to be seen."

Earlier, the Bank of Korea revised its economic outlook on the 28th of last month, lowering this year's economic growth forecast from 2.4% to 2.2%, and next year's forecast from 2.1% to 1.9%.