According to the following article in the JoongAng Daily news, Korea is one of only three of the developed countries in the world to experience positive economic growth for the year 2009.
Published November 20,2009
"Korea will be among the three developed countries with positive
economic growth this year and become the one with the highest growth
rate next year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development said yesterday.
The latest outlook for Korea, a considerable improvement from one
released in June, reflects a steady recovery in the private sector of
Asia’s fourth largest economy, the organization said.
It even
recommended that expansionary monetary policy, which has provided the
economy with a major boost, now needs to gradually come to an end in
order to better balance the national budget.
Spending, the OECD said, should be scaled back.
'Other
exceptional measures to stabilize the economy, such as the expanded
support to small and medium-sized enterprises, should be phased out,'
it said.
In its revised world economic outlook, the OECD said
Korea’s growth rate this year and next year will be 0.1 percent and 4.4
percent, respectively.
That is a significant improvement from
its previous forecast. In June, the OECD predicted a 2.2 percent
contraction this year and a 3.5 percent growth next year for Korea.
Among
the other 29 OECD countries, only Australia and Poland were predicted
to post growth in the positive territory, at 0.8 percent and 1.4
percent, respectively.
Next year, none of them were estimated to have a higher growth than Korea’s.
In
the revision, the OECD also said Korea will post 4.2 percent growth in
2011 and then record a 4.5 percent average annual growth between 2011
and 2017, close to its potential growth.
'Following the severe
contraction in late 2008, Korea has achieved one of the earliest and
strongest recoveries in the OECD area, led by exports and expansionary
fiscal policy,' said the OECD in the report.
Finance Minister
Yoon Jeung-hyun echoed the optimism on the Korean economy yesterday,
saying the economy will grow more than 4 percent next year, which had
been a government target.
'Major foreign media and international organizations are showing amazement at Korea’s rapid economic recovery,' he said.
Yoon,
however, cautioned against an excess of optimism, saying the employment
situation and the private economic sector are still stagnant.
Analysts also point to the new flu as a factor with the ability to weaken the recovery.
Early
this month, Hyundai Research Institute said the growth rate could be
lowered by up to 7.8 percentage points due to the new flu while the
Korea Economic Research Institute suggested a 5.6 percentage point
drop.
The government said the new flu will lower growth by up to 0.3 percentage point this year."
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