SEOUL, May 25 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's central bank on Thursday lowered its 2023 economic growth outlook by 0.2 percentage points amid the rising worry about an economic downturn.
After the rate-setting meeting, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said the economy was forecast to grow 1.4 percent in 2023, down from 1.6 percent estimated in February.
It was lower than the growth forecast of 1.5 percent from the local state-run Korea Development Institute (KDI), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The downward revision was mainly caused by the sluggishness of export, which continued to decline for the seventh consecutive month through April.
The BOK predicted the Asian economy to gain 2.3 percent in 2024, down from the previous estimate of 2.4 percent.
Outlook for this year's headline inflation was unchanged at 3.5 percent, but the forecast for next year's consumer price inflation was revised to 2.4 percent from the previous 2.6 percent. ■