Seoul, Aug 27 (IANS) The Bank of Korea (BOK) on Thursday raised its economic growth forecast for South Korea to 3.3 per cent for this year, citing strong semiconductor exports driven by steady demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
The revision represents a 0.7 percentage-point increase from the BOK’s previous forecast of 2.6 percent issued in May.
The central bank has raised its 2026 growth forecast two times since it projected 2 percent growth in February, reports Yonhap news agency.
It marked the highest growth forecast issued by the central bank since 2021, when the BOK projected 4.7 percent growth.
The BOK’s estimate is also higher than the South Korean government’s 3 percent growth outlook published last month.
Recently, most global investment banks have revised their growth forecasts for the South Korean economy to 3 percent or higher, including 3.5 percent from Moody’s and 3.4 percent from Morgan Stanley.
For 2027, the central bank estimated its growth outlook at 2.9 percent, up from 2.1 percent in May.
The South Korean economy grew 1.8 percent in the first quarter from a quarter earlier, marking the strongest quarterly growth since the third quarter of 2020, when the economy expanded 2.2 percent.
In the second quarter, Asia’s fourth-largest economy expanded 0.6 percent, sharply exceeding the BOK’s May forecast of 0.2 percent growth.
The BOK retained its earlier forecast for consumer price inflation of 2.7 percent in 2026 and 2.3 percent in 2027.
South Korea’s average household income rose 4.5 percent from a year earlier in the second quarter of 2026 on increases in wage and transfer income, data showed on Thursday.
The average monthly household income came to 5.29 million won (US$3,810) in the April-June period, according to data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
In a separate report, the finance ministry said inflation-adjusted household income rose 1.5 percent.
Average monthly wage income edged up 0.8 percent from a year earlier to 3.21 million won, with growth limited by fewer wage workers and slowing wage growth.
—IANS
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