South Korea Recovery on Track

South Korea’s economy will be in recovery mode thanks to continued export expansion and the effect from the implementation of supplementary budget, a government report said Friday.

The finance ministry said in a monthly economic assessment report, called Green Book, that exports and production continued a growth trend on the back of the global recovery, Xinhua reported.

It said private consumption, which had been sluggish, rebounded recently, forecasting that the economy would be in a recovery track due to the continued export growth and the implementation effect of the extra budget.

From August to October, the report said the recovery was not solid, but it changed the phrase into the economy to be in a recovery track.

It was attributable to robust economic growth in the third quarter. The country’s real gross domestic product grew 1.4% in the July-September quarter from three months earlier.

The GDP result boosted expectations for this year’s economic growth to surpass 3%, the growth forecasts of both the government and the central bank.

Production in the mining and manufacturing industries kept rising for three months through September. Retail sales, which reflect private consumption, rebounded in September, after falling in the previous month.

Discount outlet sales increased 1.7% in October from a year earlier, with gasoline and diesel sales increasing 3.4%.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said Friday that it will offer financial assistance to local companies suffering losses from their investment in the inter-Korean factory zone, which has been shut down after the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s nuclear test last year.

It has also planned to compensate firms sustaining losses from investment in other inter-Korean economic cooperation projects, which would be the first such measure taken by the South Korean government.