SEOUL: South Korea maintains the view that its economy is still on a modest recovery path, a senior finance ministry official said on Monday, shortly after news factory output had seen its worst fall in six years.
Factory output in January fell 3.7 percent in seasonally adjusted terms from December, government data showed, following December's 10.5 percent month-on-month decline from November.
"Exports have been posting solid growth in terms of volume," said Lee Chan-woo, director-general of the finance ministry's economic policy bureau.
Lee said February industrial activity is expected to improve while low oil prices will help exports post positive growth this year.
The government expects growth from the first three months of the year to be around 1 percent on quarterly terms, Lee added, while effects of the Bank of Korea's two rate cuts last year in August and October are expected to become pronounced past the second quarter.
South Korea's current monetary policy base rate is at 2.0 percent.
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