South Korea's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.3 per cent month-on-month in the third quarter of this year, according to preliminary accounting data released by the Bank of Korea on Tuesday.
Affected by the epidemic, after two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the first and second quarters of last year, South Korea's economy showed a momentum of growth in the third quarter (2.2%), the fourth quarter (1.1%) and the first quarter (1.7%), the second quarter (0.8%) and the third quarter (0.3%) of this year. However, affected by the fourth wave of pandemics, supply chain bottlenecks, and shrinking private consumption and investment, the growth rate slowed down significantly in the third quarter.
In august, the south Korean central bank kept its economic growth forecast for this year unchanged at 4%, and predicted that the target could be achieved if the growth rate for the next two quarters was close to 0.6%. However, the growth rate in the third quarter has halved, and without a strong rebound in the fourth quarter, the target of 4 per cent growth for the whole year may be difficult to achieve.