World Bank senior vice president Justin Yifu Lin

Korea will see its economy bounce back the fastest among all 30 OECD nations, a World Bank official said Monday.

At a conference co-hosted by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the World Bank, World Bank senior vice president Justin Yifu Lin forecast that Korea's economy is expected to start rebounding from the second half of the year "because it was in good macroeconomic health before the crisis."  He cited the government's timely measures to stimulate the economy as another contributing factor.

He predicted the Korea's economy will shrink at 3-3.5 percent this year, but will grow at two percent next year and four to five percent in 2011, compared to the IMF's forecast of -4 percent and 1.5 percent for this and next year.

However, Lin also pointed out that Korea's economy bears uncertainty due to its heavy foreign dependence. He said that sustainable growth for the country's economy depends on the rebound of the world economy. The World Bank revised down Monday this year's outlook for global growth to -2.9 percent from -1.7 percent in March.