South Korea’s economic growth more than halved in the second quarter from the first to record the weakest expansion in six years, battered by a deadly virus outbreak, dry weather and poor exports.
The economy grew just 0.3 per cent in April-June over the previous quarter, the central bank estimated on Thursday, the slowest since the first quarter of 2009 with consumption pummelled by an outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers).
The much weaker than expected data follows 0.8 per cent growth in the first quarter on a sequential basis and marks the weakest since a 0.1 per cent gain in the first quarter of 2009. The median forecast from a Reuters survey of 20 analysts was 0.4 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis.
"There is a chance things will turn around in the third quarter but it will be tough for the economy to grow by over 1 per cent as the government currently hopes because exports are still bad," said Huh Jae-hwan, an economist at Daewoo Securities.
"Things might improve from the June quarter, but it won’t be easy for the economy to make a meaningful comeback."
The economy expanded 2.2 per cent in the June quarter from a year earlier, compared with a median 2.3 per cent forecast in the Reuters poll and 2.5 per cent growth in the first quarter.