ADB Maintains Growth Forecast for Korea

The Asian Development Bank has kept its growth outlook for Korea this year unchanged at four percent, the same as in September.

But ADB downgraded its outlook for 46 other Asian countries except Japan from 7.1 to seven percent citing the emergence of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

Korea managed to maintain its previous forecast based on the continuing recovery momentum on the back of robust exports and facility investment. Korea's exports, grew 32 percent from a year earlier in November to hit a record of US$60 billion for the month.

The bank's estimate for Korea is on par with the projections by the OECD and the Bank of Korea, and slightly lower than the International Monetary Fund's 4.3 percent. The ADB's projection for next year also remains the same at 3.1 percent.