SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s economic growth ticked up in the second quarter, led by a more favourable net export contribution, official advance estimates showed on Tuesday, slightly exceeding market expectations.
Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in April-June on a quarterly basis, according to the Bank of Korea, after a 0.3% increase in the preceding three months.
It beat the median 0.5% rise forecast in a Reuters survey of economists and marked the biggest quarterly growth since the second quarter of 2022.
By expenditure, exports fell 1.8%, but imports dropped at a much faster rate of 4.2%, bringing a net growth contribution of positive 1.3 percentage points to the heavily trade-reliant economy.
Private consumption as well as facility and construction investments were all weaker than the quarter before, down 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively, while government spending dropped 1.9%, the biggest since early 1997.
GDP for the quarter was 0.9% higher than the same quarter the year before, compared with an expansion of 0.9% in the January-March quarter and a 0.8% increase expected by economists.
Asia’s fourth-largest economy is expected to grow 1.4% in 2023, down from 2.6% in 2022, according to the latest forecasts by the central bank and the government.
(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Ed Davies, Jonathan Oatis and Kim Coghill)
