Open figure viewer
Significance
Year-on-year GDP growth was little changed at 2.7% in the first quarter after easing to 2.8% in 2015 and 2016 from an average of 3.7% in the five years to 2014. In 2016 consumer spending grew by less than 2.5%, machinery investment did not grow at all and net export volumes subtracted from growth.
Impacts
The US administration may threaten to pull out of the US-South Korea free-trade deal unless terms are renegotiated.
Samsung in the first quarter of 2017 reported its best profits since 2013, but it will face an increasingly competitive market.
Talk of reunification with North Korea as a solution to demographic pressures is fanciful.
Keywords:
South Korea,
AP,
economy,
growth,
labour,
population,
industry,
foreign trade,
manufacturing,
reform
© Oxford Analytica 2020. All rights reserved. This content contains general information about geopolitical, macroeconomic and social developments or (where stated) other matters. It does not contain advice or recommendations that may be relied on. Where links to external websites are provided, this does not indicate that Oxford Analytica or Emerald agree with, endorse or have checked for accuracy the contents of said sites.
2017
You do not currently have access to this content.
