[News Today] IMF projects 1% growth for Korea

[LEAD]
The International Monetary Fund says South Korea's economy will grow just 1.0 percent this year. That's half its forecast from three months ago. Among major economies, Korea is expected to take the hardest hit from rising tariffs.

[REPORT]
The IMF's world economic forecast for April began and ended with tariffs.

It projected that everyone will be hurt by higher tariffs and sharply lowered the growth forecasts for most member countries.

Kristalina Georgieva / Managing Director, IMF (April 18)
Ultimately, trade is like water. When countries put an obstacle in the form of tariff and non-tariff barriers, the flow diverts. Trade goes on but disruptions incur costs.

Korea saw the biggest fall among the advanced countries.

Its growth was projected at 2% in January but was lowered by one percentage point to 1%.

Compared to drops of 0.9 percentage points for the U.S., 0.2 for the Eurozone, and 0.5 for Japan, Korea faces the largest tariff impact.

Even among developing countries, only Mexico and Thailand saw sharper downgrades than Korea.

The IMF did not explain why Korea was impacted most heavily by the tariffs, but the reason is presumed to be Korea's high dependence on trade.

The IMF projected that if the conflict between the U.S. and China extends until next year, the global economy would be hit harder even if reciprocal tariffs are deferred.