Semiconductors Accounted for Half of Korea's Growth Last Year
26 June, 2019
Korea's economy grew only around one percent last year if semiconductor exports are excluded, according to a state-run economic think tank.
There have been concerns for some time that Korea's economy is too dependent on microchips, and the think tank is the first to put a figure on the extent to which that is true.
The Korea Development Institute in a report said Korea's actual GDP growth stood at 2.7 percent last year, but excluding semiconductors only at 1.4 percent.
Jung Kyu-chul at the KDI said, "The memory chip industry has enjoyed an unprecedented boom in the recent couple of years. But putting that aside Korea's economy has not emerged from the low-growth trend since the global financial crisis."
And now global semiconductor prices are falling, which has prompted most banks to slash their growth projections for Korea to just over two percent this year.
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