Economy Grew Just 0.3% in 2nd Quarter

The economy grew only 0.3 percent on-quarter in the second quarter of this year, the Bank of Korea said Thursday, as consumption ground to a halt due to the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

The meager growth rate was even below pessimistic expectations.

The economy has grown less than one percent for five consecutive quarters. BOK Governor Lee Ju-yeol had forecast 0.4 percent GDP growth for the second quarter.

Lackluster exports and weak domestic consumption were compounded by the MERS outbreak, leading to even lower growth than the 0.8 percent expansion in the first quarter.

The economy had been showing signs of gradual improvement after bottoming out at 0.6 percent growth in the first quarter of 2013, but growth has been extremely weak since last year's ferry disaster.

The second-quarter growth figure was the lowest since the first quarter of 2009, when GDP grew just 0.1 percent shortly after the onset of the global financial crisis.