Trade Wars 'Could Hit Korea Worst'
26 September, 2019
Credit ratings firm Fitch warned on Tuesday that failure to deal with the U.S.-China trade war "could shave 0.5 percent off" Korea's economic growth.
Fitch associate director Jeremy Zook said in a seminar in Seoul that Korea is among countries that are impacted the most by the trade war.
The company also said trade tension with Tokyo will "have more negative impact on [Korea] than Japan."
Early this month, the U.S. imposed 15 percent tariffs on US$112 billion out of $300 billion worth of Chinese imports.
Fitch already slashed Korea's growth outlook by 0.5 percentage points to two percent in June to reflect the impact of the trade dispute. In August, Fitch also cut Korea's growth outlook for next year from 2.6 to 2.3 percent.
But Zook said his firm "does not see [Korea] falling into recession" and added that the country has the short-term fiscal capacity to implement large-scale pump-priming measures.
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