Global investment banks raise S. Korea's 2026 growth outlook to 1.9 pc

Seoul, Nov 6 (IANS) Major global investment banks (IBs) have raised their outlook for South Korea's 2026 economic growth, citing robust exports, a report showed on Thursday.

As of end-October, eight major global investment banks (IBs), including Barclays, Bank of America and Citi, projected Asia's fourth-largest economy to expand 1.9 per cent next year, up 0.1 percentage point from their median forecast published a month earlier, according to the report by the Korea Center for International Finance (KCIF).

The outlook is rosier than the Bank of Korea's (BOK) current projection of 1.6 per cent growth for 2026. The central bank is scheduled to release a revised forecast later this month, reports Yonhap news agency.

Among the institutions, Citi revised up its forecast to 2.2 per cent from 1.6 per cent, while JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs also expected South Korea's economy to grow 2.2 per cent next year.

Nomura forecast a 1.9 percent expansion, followed by UBS with 1.8 per cent, Barclays with 1.7 per cent and Bank of America with 1.6 per cent, the KCIF said.

The IBs expected South Korea's exports to remain solid next year, sustaining the economic growth following this year's strong performance.

The institutions raised their forecast for the ratio of the country's current account surplus to gross domestic product (GDP) in 2026 to 5.3 per cent from their earlier projection of 4.7 per cent, the report showed.

Meanwhile, the government plans to spend a combined 302.6 billion won (US$209 million) over the next 10 years on innovation-focused research and development (R&D) projects with high commercialization prospects, the industry ministry said.

The plan was devised to lessen the burden on private companies in developing high-risk, high-potential technologies that could become game changers for future industries, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources said.

To this end, the ministry will designate 10 areas with potential to create future growth engines and provide up to 25 billion won for a maximum period of eight years per single project.

--IANS

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